A Parents Love
by trystanr
Summary: A nine year old Naruto stumbles upon his parent's home. He explores and finds that they loved him dearly, and wanted him to be the best ninja that he could be. He takes this seriously and starts training like a madman! He's not as dumb as he makes himself out to be. That aside how will this small change affect the shinobi world. Very small harem, rated M for scenes later.
1. Discovery!

**A/n- New story, hope you all like it. My other story is probably going to either be put up for adoption or rewritten entirely, not quite sure yet what's going to happen with it yet.**

 **I don't own Naruto or anyone in this story.**

Our story starts as we find our young hero, the nine year old Naruto Uzumaki. He was running as fast as he could through forest after being beaten up yet again by the villagers. He was bleeding from several wounds all over his body, the worst being the gash across his chest. The blood dripped violently from his wounds, splashing across the ground as he moved. The boy winced as he continued to run, he knew that he couldn't make it too much longer.

"Why do they hate me?" he cried out to no one. The mob that he had been running away from, had stopped chasing him by now. He kept running, however, having no idea where he was going. Tree after tree he passed and soon he found himself on the outskirts of the village. There were trees all around him, the forest having enveloped him long ago.

'Well if they want me gone then I'll leave!' he thought to himself before looking around to find any landmarks telling him where he was. He didn't really see anything but trees at first glance, but then he noticed a kind of shimmering off in the distance. He started to run towards it, hoping to find somewhere to rest. After running for a while he didn't find anything and decided to sit down under a tree. The wind was blowing lightly and he enjoyed the feel of it on his skin. He started to doze off when literally out of nowhere a huge compound appeared not thirty feet from him.

"That wasn't there before, I'm sure of it! What in the world?" he said aloud as he started to apprehensively walk in the direction of the mansion. The compound loomed over him, frightening him slightly. He watched as the gates seemingly opened on their own. 'Well I'm not going to get anywhere by standing here.' he thought, so he decided to walk inside.

The house was two stories tall and not overly huge by normal standards. To Naruto, though it was gigantic! The door was in the center of the outer wall and on either side there was a window. The second story however had three windows. Inside the gates the compound was huge there was easily a half acre of land in the front. Naruto decided that he should knock on the door to see if anyone was home, or if they would even help him. So he did just that, and walked up to the door and knocked three times. After a while no one came to the door so he thought that it was abandoned. He put his hand on the knob and immediately felt the prick of a needle stabbing into his hand.

"Owww!" he exclaimed but then was silenced by the big door in front of him opening slowly. When it was completely open he took a peek inside and saw that it was in fact abandoned. Slowly he walked inside. The furnishings inside the living room were very modest consisting of only a couch, a coffee table, and two end tables, one at each end of the couch. There was also one cabinet that seemed full of pictures. He looked into it and saw two people a man and a woman. The man had long spiky blonde hair that fell to either side of his face. He had blue eyes and to Naruto, it seemed as if he had a kind smile on his face in every picture. The woman was the same in the respect, although she had long fiery red hair that to the young Naruto was beautiful. She had green eyes and in the pictures looked at the blonde man with love.

'I'll explore in the morning, for now I just need a placed to sleep.' Naruto yawned and went searching for a bedroom. He found one right down the hallway. The first door seemed to be locked but the second wasn't, and thankfully it had a bed! Naruto ran to it and plopped down onto it, not caring in the slightest that he still had injuries. The soft bed felt wonderful on his weary body. He fell asleep in minutes.

The hokage of the village hidden in the leaves however, did not have such a peaceful end of the night. "Neko! Bear! Where the hell is Naruto!" he yelled in fury to two of his most trusted anbu. He had heard news of what the villagers had done to the boy and was worried sick about him.

"I'm sorry sir, wave looked all over the village and he is nowhere to be found." Bear said bowing.

Dammit I want him found as soon as possible!" the old Hokage said with authority.

"Yes sir!" the two said and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Hiruzen sat down in his chair and took a long drag from his pipe.

'Oh I hope you're ok Naruto-kun, I don't know what I'd tell Minato-kun and Kushina-chan if anything happened to their son.' He went to one of the many secret chambers of the hokage tower; this one contained the crystal ball he used to oversee the village from the tower.

He started to comb the streets of the leaf village himself, looking for Naruto. No matter where he looked though, the boy wasn't to be found. He then started looking around the forests on the outskirts of the village and after a few minutes, he saw the compound.

'That wasn't there before; I haven't seen that since Minato-kun asked me to put the invisibility seal he made for it over it when he died. This doesn't make sense, why would it reappear now?' he wondered to himself. He looked around the compound and noticed that there were large amounts of blood leading up to the gate.

'That must be where he is!' the hokage thought. 'I had better go and see for myself, I don't want anyone to know that he's there of all places, if he is though I'll have to tell him the truth about his heritage. He'll find out soon enough if I don't.' with that thought he shunshined to the location of the compound.

When he got there he found that the gate was open and that more blood led up to the door. He walked inside the gate and shut it behind him, before walking to the door. He knew that Minato would have only let his son in. he was the only one given a key to his successors house, other than his student Jiraiya. He took the key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. He turned the knob and slowly walked inside.

The place was just as he remembered it with nothing amiss, except that there were small amounts of blood leading into the hallway. The old man followed the blood to the second doorway and saw Naruto Uzumaki sleeping soundly in the bed. Relieved that the boy was alright he walked inside and quietly as he could, looked over the wounds. Miraculously all but the gash on his chest had finished healing by now. Sarutobi saw the other cut marks in his clothing and wondered to himself where the wounds had gone. He watched as the final injury finished healing on its own.

'What the hell? This boy has some really advanced healing abilities. I wonder if the fox could be doing it' he thought as if it could be impossible that the fox would help him. 'Well at least he's ok, I'll let him sleep tonight and then wake him up in the morning.' The old man silently exited the house and when he got outside the gate he put the invisibility seal back up so that no one would know where Naruto was and that the fourth hokage's house still stood.

'If it gets out that this building is still here people will want to search it and find all the jutsu Minato and Kushina worked on together. I can't let that happen!' he left as quickly as he came, glad that his adoptive grandson was alright. When he got back to the hokage tower he called for bear and Neko.

"I have found Naruto and he is alright. I'm keeping his location a secret for now so as to discourage any more attackers. Thank you Neko, Bear that will be all." The two nodded in unison, and disappeared after he gave them their leave. The old hokage sighed knowing that he would have a very busy day tomorrow.

The next morning Naruto opened his eyes slowly to adjust to the light, he was still in the same bed he remembered falling asleep in. he got out of bed and looked around. The room was kind of plain, having only the bed and two end tables as furniture. He walk out of the room and then down the hallway to the third room. This one was on the right instead of the left. He took a peek inside and it was pretty much the same as the other. So he kept looking around the house. There were three bedrooms on this floor and they all looked almost exactly the same as the first, the other room was a bathroom and it was just as plain as the other. He found the staircase at the end of the hall. He looked at the floor of the landing and noticed what seemed like a trap door.

'I'll explore down there later, I want to see the second floor first.' The staircase switched directions at that point going back towards the living room. He followed it up to the second floor and found that it was just as big as the first. It looked like it had six rooms by how many doors there were. He walked to the end of the hallway and it opened up into a den-type area. There was a couch and loveseat framing the walls and a wooden coffee table in the middle of them. There was a door separating the den from the biggest bedroom of all. Naruto decided to look through all of the rooms starting with the ones at the beginning of the hallway. All in all there were three bedrooms and two bathrooms. They looked almost exactly like the one he slept in. they were very plain and looked as if no one had been inside them in years.

He finally came to the last door and again felt the prick of a needle on his hand as he tried to turn the knob. He opened the door, still wondering about the pain he felt at the front door and this one. He opened the door slowly and noticed immediately that this room was different than all of the others. It was bigger and brighter for one. He saw that there were many pictures of the couple he saw in the cabinet downstairs. They looked very happy together. The bedroom had a king sized bed in the middle of the back wall and a dresser with a vanity mirror on the left wall looking in from the door. There was another cabinet full of different pictures on the right wall and two end tables that surrounded the bed. On one of the end tables there was a picture that he hadn't seen yet. It was one of the couple holding a baby boy. The two adults in the picture looked very tired and weary, and the background was very dark. The two looked absolutely happy, though, looking down at the boy. He had blonde spiky hair and cerulean blue eyes. The boy looked familiar to Naruto but he didn't have any more time to study it as someone else made their presence known in the room.

"Naruto you shouldn't be in here. This house belonged to two very important ninja. They aren't living anymore but it wouldn't do to disrespect the dead." Hiruzen Sarutobi said knowing full well whose house they were standing in.

"I didn't mean to disrespect anyone Jiji, I was only looking for somewhere to sleep last night because the villagers hurt me and kicked me out of the village." The boy said looking at the elder man with sadness in his eyes.

The hokage knew this already, "I know what they did to you Naruto, and they will be severely punished for this despicable crime they've committed against you. I want to ask you, do you know whose house you're standing in right now?" he asked.

"Well the man in the pictures looks like the fourth hokage, we've went over him a little in the academy, so if I had to guess right now it'd be his and his wife's house." The blonde said looking around.

"That's very good, at least you paid attention during some of your classes, but what you don't know is that they had a son. They named him Naruto; the baby in the picture over there is him. This is your house Naruto. I wasn't supposed to tell you about this place until you made chunin, but since you found it on your own I had no other choice. This is an s class village secret so I don't want you to tell anyone about this house until the day that you earn your chunin rank. You are allowed to stay here; it is your house after all." The hokage smiled saying.

Naruto stood there shocked. His eyes were bulging and his mouth fell open. "Wait so you're telling me that t-the fourth hokage was my d-dad?" he could barely get the words out.

The Hokage smiled. "Yes Naruto he was your dad, now sit down we have a lot to talk about today." The blonde sat on what he now knew as his mother and fathers bed. Hiruzen sat beside him. "There is much that you don't know about yourself and your parents Naruto, but I must ask that everything I say to you today stays between us."

"Of course gramps, I may be young, but I know they must have had reasons for keeping this a secret. Didn't dad die fighting the kyuubi?" the boy asked. Hiruzen looked down somberly.

"Tell me what you know about the kyuubi attack nine years ago Naruto" the blonde was puzzled for a moment and then he answered

"Well I know that the fourth fought him and killed him, but died in the process."

"That is what we have told everyone to keep you safe. The truth is that the kyuubi cannot be killed. The fourth did the only thing he could at the time and sealed it into a baby boy. That boy was his only son. It was You, Naruto." Naruto was speechless. He had not only learned about his parents but that his father sealed the beast feared by the entire fire nation inside of him.

"I guess that why all the villagers hate me huh. Why me though jiji, couldn't he have sealed it in another child?" Naruto asked.

"Well the answer to that question is not one that I can give you, but one you must find for yourself. In time it will be clear to you Naruto. Now that you know the full truth to your parentage and what is inside you, you will have to be careful. No one can know who your father is until you can truly protect yourself." Naruto nodded agreeing.

"Will you tell me about them? My parents I mean" Naruto had tears in his eyes thinking about all that he had lost because they were gone. He would never get a chance to meet them, or to have a family. He would never have a normal childhood, and while he had always known this, knowing who they were hurt even more. Hiruzen looked at the boy and knew exactly what he was thinking. It pained him to see the boy who he thought of as his adoptive grandson hurt like this.

"They were amazing people Naruto. Your mother was as fiery as they come; she had this way of making anything into a lighthearted moment. She was a serious prankster when she was young, not unlike yourself." He laughed at this. "She was a very powerful shinobi as well, being known throughout the five great nations as The Red hot habanero. Her use of two red swords helped support the name. She knew many different aspects of the shinobi teachings but she as well as Minato were masters in fuinjutsu, which is the sealing art. I believe she was the one to teach your father all he knew about the art. She particularly loved to use the more explosive seals on your father's master, Jiraiya, who she considered to be a pervert of the highest order. I'm sure you'll meet him soon enough. Your mother's name was Kushina Uzumaki" He smiled remembering how awful Kushina was to Jiraiya when it came to his "research".

Naruto listened raptly taking all of what was being said in. "and what about dad?" he asked.

"Well your dad was amazing as well in his own right. He was loving and cared about everyone in the village more than most people I've ever met. He and Kushina were in love almost from the moment they met, but I believe that it was one time that he saved her from being captured was when they both truly knew how they each felt. Your father was a prodigy among prodigies, he learned everything he put his mind to learning, and it wasn't because he was some genius. He worked hard for everything, and he never gave up. That was something that he got from Jiraiya to an extent. He created the rasengan and many other jutsu including the one that made him famous, the hiraishin. He was known as the yellow flash of Konoha throughout the shinobi world. His name was Minato Namikaze. I loved both of them like they were my own children and they have made me prouder than ever. I still remember the happiness on their faces when you were born. They loved you like nothing else in the world." Naruto was crying now, but they weren't tears of sadness. They were tears of joy, he finally knew about his parents and who they were, but most importantly he knew that they loved him. The old hokage took Naruto in an embrace and the two stayed like that for a while.

"Naruto, this house has many secrets for you to uncover, and if you would like I can have someone come by and help you with looking through everything and dealing with it all. Don't worry about him trying to hurt you; he feels the same as I do about you if not even more. He was your father's student. He can help to train you and get you ready for your life as a genin in three years. That's when you'll be taking your graduation exam at the academy. Would that be okay with you?" he asked the young blonde after breaking the embrace they held.

Naruto looked at the man and smile "yeah i would like that. If this man was my father's student I can get to know even more about him. I'd like a few days to have this house to myself before he comes though, if that's alright."

Hiruzen nodded understanding. "Alright I will send him here Monday morning. Be ready to work until you drop on that day Naruto, this man I'm sending to help you is a jounin now and will not take it easy on you just because you're a kid. You need to be ready. Also I would ask that you do not try to contact the fox spirit inside you unit he gets here on Monday. It could be dangerous." The hokage got up. He looked at Naruto and the boy nodded. "Alright ill come by and check on you in a few weeks. The job of hokage can be very busy."

Naruto smiled a foxy smile. "I'll remember that when I take the hat from you old man! I'm going to surpass my dad and become the greatest hokage this world has ever seen!" he exclaimed. The hokage chuckled.

"Big dreams for such a shrimp, I'll be sure to remember this promise when the time comes." Hiruzen said still laughing a little. With that the hokage left the room and Naruto was left alone in his new home. He thought about what to do as he sat on the bed. He decided to look around the room a bit. He searched both end tables and didn't really find much, just a few old books, one of which was written by his father's sensei. He smiled when he saw the name and began to read the book called: Tales of a gutsy ninja.

Outside Hiruzen smiled at how well Naruto had taken everything. He decided it best to undo the seal shielding the house from view, and headed back to his office. He called Neko and bear, along with Kakashi to his office. When they all arrived he took a drag from his pipe and told them all about what had just happened between him and Naruto. They all had looks of concern on their faces except for Kakashi. He told bear and Neko to keep watch over the compound 24/7 and to put a perimeter barrier around it so that if anyone's curiosity got the better of them that he would know about it. This was to be a full time mission and they were told that they would get a double S ranks worth of mission pay once the boy graduated from the academy in three years.

"Yes Hokage-sama!" they said in unison and disappeared in a classic shunshin, the swirling of the leaves. Once they were both gone, the old hokage eyed Kakashi for any tell of how he was feeling about this. Kakashi however was elated about the fast that his sensei's son finally knew the truth.

"I'm glad he found their house, I didn't want to hide it from him in the first place. It is rightfully his after all. I'm guessing that you calling me here and telling me this means that you want me to teach the boy?" Kakashi said and was hoping that this was the case. He had wanted to have more of a part in Naruto's life than staying in the shadows watching over the boy for a long time now.

"Yes, you will go to the compound Monday morning and help him sort through anything he has found by then. Then I want you to be his full time sensei until he graduates from the academy and is put on your team seven. I will give you an academy schedule so that you will know exactly what he is learning and when. I want you to help him grow and mature into the amazing shinobi that I know he can not be lazy about this Kakashi. It is Friday today so you have three days to think about how to go about training him." The hokage said.

"Alright Hokage-sama, thank you for this opportunity to be in Naruto's life, I will not fail you!" Kakashi replied with more vigor in his voice than the hokage had seen in years. They talked a little more about what Hiruzen wanted Kakashi to do and then he gave Kakashi the schedule. Kakashi left to get to planning.

Naruto was in his parents' room reading the book that was left in one of the end tables. He was really enjoying it and thought that it was one of the best books he had ever read, not that he had read many books before this. He was about a quarter of the way through and decided to put it down to explore the house a little more. He stopped at the end of the last chapter he was on and bookmarked his place.

He then got up and exited his parents' old room. Then he remembered the trap door that he saw on the landing of the stairs. And the locked door downstairs. He walked downstairs to the locked door and tried to open it once more. It wouldn't budge so he went to the landing on the stairs and pulled open the trap door. It didn't budge either, until he felt the prick of the needle and then it swung open. Under the door was a hole made of stone that went down about nine feet. He jumped down and found himself in the dark.

'I need a light' he thought to himself before looking for something he could use. He saw the faint outline of an unlit torch and struck a match from his ninja pouch to light it. When it was lit he looked around and found that he was staring at a stone wall. After turning around he saw a long hallway with more unlit torches lining it. He lit four of them other than the one he held/ two at the beginning of the large hall and two at the end. When he reached the end and lit the two torches however, what he saw amazing him! He was looking at a humongous library that seemed like it doubled as a training space as well. There were shelves upon shelves full of scrolls and books in front of him and lining the walls to the right. There must have been thousands of scrolls full of jutsu down there! Passed the three rows of shelves the space opened up and there were training dummies spread out in the remaining space. One thing caught his eye though as he looked around and that was a rather large desk at the far side of the room. On it were two letters. He picked up the one that had his father's name on it. He opened it and read:

 _Dear Naruto,_

 _By now you've made chunin and the old man has told you about your heritage. I'm so proud of you son! This place was meant to be the first hidden part of our and your house that you discovered. There are many other places that you will find. Just as a hint, most of them will be underground and connected to this one. This is mine and your mother's personal jutsu library. It contains a place for you to train and every jutsu or seal your mother and I have collected over the years. It also keeps all the research we have conducted over the years on chakra and jutsu and seals. In the drawer to your left is a scroll containing my own personal taijutsu style. We both hope that you use this place and the things we have left to you to become as strong as you can. I love you very much Naruto, and I know that you have probably had a pretty hard life so far, and for that I'm sorry. Being a jinchuriki is never easy, your mother and I know all about how hard it is. She was the kyuubi's container before you. Nevertheless you should never have been put through all of that pain and loneliness. I can't express into words how sorry I am. Before I go I have one last hint as to where another hidden place is for you to find. One of the training dummies has a clue as to where you will find all the information we have on mine and Kushina's clan histories. Sadly this all the time I have, so I want to wish you good luck in everything you do. Train hard and do your best, my son._

 _With love always,_

 _Your father Minato Namikaze._

Naruto read and reread the letter and was in tears by the time he finished the third read. Everything in this house and that his parents left him showed the love they had for him, it made him so happy! He decided to wait to read his mother's letter until the next day so that he could start to look around the library. He wasn't very worried about finding the place that held the secrets of his heritage just yet. He had so much to do here! He pulled open the drawer and found the scroll his father was talking about in the letter. He opened it to see the name of his dads fighting style.

'Roaring dragon strike huh? Even dads style has a cool name! I'll bet it's very good in combat too!' Naruto thought to himself. He looked around the library to see if he could find some jutsu that he thought would be cool. The shelves were organized pretty well. Each row had the kanji for either an element symbolizing that it was ninjutsu for that element, or it had the kanji for taijutsu or genjutsu. There was one other row of scrolls that had the kanji for sealing on it, so he guessed that that was where all his mom and dad's sealing jutsu were.

He started at the end, which was ninjutsu for fire. He found three scrolls that he thought would be useful and they were fire style: fire wave, which was a D rank ninjutsu that you spread a wave of fire around the front of yourself to either protect yourself from an enemy closing the distance on you or you attacked a group of enemies with it. It could be used on the ground or if you were attacking into the air around you. The second fire jutsu he found was fire style: phoenix flower jutsu, in this jutsu you spit small balls of fire at your opponent. It was a decent c rank attack type jutsu. The third jutsu he found was the most interesting to him, it was the A rank jutsu fire style: hellfire whirlwind it was a skill which could be used in order to protect the user. Gathering their chakra into the air and having it spin around them; a flaming whirlwind emerges around the user forming somewhat of a protective barrier. Normally it is used to deter the opponent from continuing their taijutsu attack, but can be used offensively to send an opponent whom prefers close range a good distance away because of its spinning force. It seemed to Naruto that it was a more advanced version of the fire wave jutsu. Having found three good fire type jutsu that his teacher could teach him, he moved on to the next element.

He walked over to the next row. It was earth jutsu. He fairly quickly found three beginner jutsu that he liked. One was earth style: mud wall, a c rank jutsu where you performed the hand seals and slammed your hands into the earth. A wall of earth and mud that could be big or small depending on the chakra used would spring up in front of you. It is a very good defensive jutsu. The second that he found was earth style: stone shuriken jutsu. It was a d rank offensive jutsu that allowed you to turn some of the earth around you into shuriken. It was mostly used when a ninja ran out of his or her shuriken. The third was another c rank offensive jutsu called earth style rising stone spears. In this jutsu the user would slam their hands onto the ground or any earth really, and could when and where hardened spikes of earth would stab out of the ground at an opponent.

The next element down the line was futon, or wind. This element interested him the most so far. It was a mostly offensive element that harnessed the air around the user. He in his young mind thought that it meant that it was possible for him to one day be able to fly. Needless to say he was very excited about learning this element. He looked through the row until he found three good jutsu to learn. They were all offensive of course. The first was futon: drilling air bullet. In this d rank jutsu the user inhaled and compress an amount of air of their choosing before launching it at the enemy at high speeds. The second jutsu he found was wind style: great breakthrough, a crank jutsu where the user created a gust of wind to knock back their opponent. He smiled as he looked at the last one. It was wind style: blade of wind. In this c rank jutsu the user used their hand to launch a blade of wind at the opponent slashing them wherever hit.

He quickly went and set the three jutsu scrolls down with his .other six and went to looking for some water style jutsu. He could only find one that really stuck out to him at the moment and that was water style: water whip jutsu. It was a c rank offensive type jutsu that allowed the user to create a whip of water from a body of water and use it as an extension of his or her index and middle fingers.

The last and final ninjutsu row of the library was the lightning style. He started to walk down it looking for some jutsu that he could learn. He found a very useful looking e rank jutsu called lightning style: static strings jutsu, which allows the user to create strings of electricity that can either act physically as strings, or as a medium that can send small shocks to an opponent. One of this technique's most useful features is its ability to allow the user to detect outsiders. When the strings are placed around an area, they are often fairly difficult to see, and unnoticed by the quick eye. But when the string is used to detect outsiders, they can adapt a quality that is string-like and electrical at the same time. This quality makes the static strings into a string of electricity, but with such a weak current that it is rarely noticed by Shinobi who accidentally walk through the strings. However, when this happens, the user at once will feel a small shock in their fingers, or where ever else they are keeping the strings intact. But unless the opponent felt the weak current as they walked through the strings, the opponent will usually never know the strings were there. But beyond its ability to detect outsiders, this skill can be used as a normal string when it is needed but none is around, or it can be used to create small shocks to other people. However, the shocks are only a little bit stronger than static electricity, and usually do no damage at all. He thought it could be very useful for creating a perimeter around a camp. Or just tying up enemy ninja and interrogating them. He also found a d rank offensive jutsu called lightning style: lightning bolt jutsu in which the user shoots a bold of lightning at their opponent from their hand. It wasn't a continuous stream though, just one bolt. He looked around the row of lightning jutsu once more and found the c rank version of the lightning bolt jutsu, which was lightning style lightning blast. This jutsu worked in exactly the same as its predecessor except that it was a continuous stream of lightning coming from the hand. After he found the last jutsu that he wanted his teacher to teach him he went to where they were all stacked and sat the lightning style jutsu there.

He went to each row again and found a beginners guide to each element. He sat the thirteen jutsu and there corresponding element guides onto his father's desk. He pocketed his mom's letter and went back to exploring the library. In the end he picked up three more books and one more scroll. One book was a beginner's guide to sealing and another was one for genjutsu, although now that he knew he had the kyuubi inside him he doubted that he could even use genjutsu because of his high chakra reserves. The third book was on jutsu theory, and the scroll was on a beginner's taijutsu style. He guessed that there would be certain requirements to learn his dad's style so he decided on learning a beginner style to start with. He put the new books and the scroll onto his dad's desk and then realized that he heard something. It was growling coming from his stomach.

'Whoops, guess I've been down here for a while' he thought and then started back towards the hallway to go back up to the house. When he got out of the trap door and shut it, he walked to the kitchen and realized it was completely empty! 'Damn I forgot to ask jiji to bring me some food. Oh well I guess I'll go out and get some.' He thought and headed outside. He had been down in the basement far longer than he thought and it was already starting to get dark. He exited the gate and as he was walking towards the village he wondered where he could even get food. No one would sell anything to him because of the kyuubi.

'Guess I'll head to jiji's office and ask him.' He thought and started making his way to the hokage tower. It took him about thirty minutes to get there from where he was. During the run he was berated and stared at harshly. None of the villagers would touch him though, because of what happened to the last few that did. Naruto didn't know that was why though. He walked into the hokage tower and asked to see him.

"What business would a demon brat like you have with the hokage?" the receptionist asked, sneering at him hatefully.

"Well I need some food and he always tells me to come to him if I need anything." Naruto said looking down.

"Send the boy in!" the woman heard from the old man's office.

"Go ahead then." She said not at all happy about it. He walked back to the hokage's office. When he walked inside there was a man smoking and another man with glasses and a bandanna on his head already in there with him.

"That will be all Asuma, Ebisu. You are dismissed." The man with the glasses, Ebisu, looked at Naruto with utter contempt as he walked by. Naruto looked down as the other man walked passed him, but not before he saw a completely different look on his face. It was pity. He felt sorry for Naruto because of what he had to go through every day. Asuma even smiled at the boy, for he knew the truth about Naruto's beast. Naruto looked up dumbfounded, but smiled back thinking that maybe not all the people in this village were so bad. Asuma left and the hokage asked Naruto why he had come to see him this evening.

"Well I spent most of the day down in the basement of mom and dad's house, they have an amazing library! It has everything you could ever want to learn about the ninja arts in it. I didn't really open much, but dad left me a letter and his fighting style, the roaring dragon strike style. I went through the library and picked out a few jutsu from each element for the teacher you're sending to me Monday to look at and teach me. I also picked out beginner books in genjutsu taijutsu, sealing and each of the five elements. I feel like I need to be well rounded if I'm going to succeed and be the best ninja I can be!"

"Mom also left me a letter but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to open it. But none of that is why I'm here gramps. I need food! I feel like I'm going to fall over any second!" he said exaggerating a little. The hokage looked at him with a dumb look on his face. 'This is the dead last at the academy? What the hell happened to the boy to make his reasoning skills this sound? Here he is telling me what he needs to be trained in, and listening to him is like listening to a genin. An experienced one at that!'

Aloud he said "alright Naruto lets go and get you some ramen, I could use a break anyway. I'll have food sent over to your new house in the morning." The old man got up and they walked out of the hokage tower towards Ichiraku Ramen, a little ramen shop that Naruto loved.

When they arrived at the shop Teuchi the owner said "welcome to Ichiraku ramen home of the – oh hokage-sama what brings you here? Oh and you've brought our favorite customer with you. How are you Naruto-kun?" Naruto smiled

"I'm fine old man, can I get three bowls of your miso ramen please?"

"Sure coming right up! Hokage-sama, what would you like?" the hokage asked for one bowl of miso ramen and smiled as they started getting their orders ready.

He looked at the young blonde in front of him and saw that not much had changed. 'So why is he so much smarter?' he wondered. "Naruto I have a question. You have always been dead last at the academy, and you've known this. But tonight I noticed reasoning in what you've done that far surpasses your years. It sounded like an experienced genin was talking to me, and not a nine year old academy student! What happened?"

Naruto simply laughed and said "oh come on gramps. You can't tell me that you haven't noticed. The lack of intelligence and overall bad grades at the academy has been a mask from the beginning. I thought that if I seemed dumb and easy to get along with id make friends faster and easier. For a while it worked, but lately no one seems to want to be my friend at the academy. They all steer clear of me for some reason." Naruto said proudly at first and then his voice changed to one of sadness.

Hiruzen was stunned; he couldn't believe that he hadn't seen through Naruto's mask of idiocy from the beginning. "I can't believe I didn't notice. Naruto you are really good at that. Do you think anyone else knows you're faking it?" he asked. The boy thought for a moment and then said, "well Shikamaru probably knows, he's way smarter than me even though he doesn't show it either. He and Choji are two of my only friends at the academy."

The old Hokage seemed deep in thought after this. The food was finally served and they both started enjoying their respective meals. Hiruzen paused and said "I think that starting Monday you should let go of the act. Show them all the real you Naruto-kun!" he said smiling.

Naruto finished his first bowl before saying "why do you think that gramps? If being dumb hasn't helped me make friends, what makes you think taking of the mask and being smart will?"

Hiruzen was eating and as he finished chewing his last bite he said "well Naruto it might not help with that aspect of academy life. However it will show everyone that you had them all fooled and that the Naruto that they know, isn't the real you. It could help in earning some respect. Oh and I wouldn't act like an idiot in front of your teacher either. He wouldn't take it too well." The old man chuckled. The boy listened and after hearing everything he agreed and told his adoptive grandfather that he would do it. He'd show them all the real Naruto Uzumaki! After finishing their ramen the two left the restaurant and walked back to Naruto's house. When they reached the compound the hokage said goodbye to Naruto and headed back to the tower. With his stomach full and a little bit of a weight lifted off his shoulders, Naruto decided that it was time for bed. He took off his jumpsuit and headed to his parents room to sleep. When he was there he felt closer to them than anywhere else. The blonde was sleeping soundly within minutes.

The next morning Naruto woke to his front door being open. Knowing that no one but gramps and a few others even knew about his new house, he went downstairs to investigate. He found a silver haired jounin, by the looks of him, carrying groceries into his kitchen. "So you're who gramps decided to have restock my fridge? My names Naruto who are you?" he said walking into the living room behind the man. This didn't surprise the jounin however as he had heard the boy wake up and come downstairs. He sat the groceries on the kitchen table and turned around to see a young boy wearing a green shirt with the Uzumaki clan symbol, the swirl, in red along with black boxers. The boy was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he spoke.

"Well Naruto, you and I weren't supposed to meet until Monday but when the hokage said that you needed groceries for your empty kitchen, I volunteered to bring them here. He also told me that you brought him a few ideas on some jutsu you would like to learn. I'm your new sensei starting Monday. My name is Kakashi Hatake and I was on your father genin team. Why don't we sit down and talk for a while. Ill cook us both some eggs for breakfast." The jounin Naruto now knew as Kakashi said. He had a mask over his face and his left eye was covered by his headband. He dressed like Naruto assumed most jounin did with a green flak jacket and a blue long sleeved ninja shirt. He also had blue ninja pants on as well.

"Sure I'd like to talk to you for a while before we start training on Monday, by now jiji has told you that I've found my parents library and went through it for some jutsu that you could teach me. I got three for each element except for water because I couldn't really find anything that stuck out other than the one I did pick. I also got beginners books for controlling each element and books on sealing, genjutsu, jutsu theory, and a beginner's taijutsu scroll. I doubt the genjutsu book will be of any use to me since I have such high chakra reserves, but I thought I should have a well-rounded background in everything. Wouldn't you agree Kakashi sensei?" he explained what he had been up to and why.

The jounin had to say that he was impressed with the boy so far. His file stated that he was dead last at the academy and didn't have much of a future as a ninja. "Well Naruto you've impressed me with how much you've thought about this. Why don't you go and get everything you've come up with while I cook." Kakashi said and eye smiled at the boy.

"Yes sensei" Naruto said and jumped up from the couch. He first went upstairs and got dressed in his jumpsuit before going down into the library and getting everything he had come up with so far, including his father's scroll. 'Oh that's right I still need to open moms letter today. I'll do it when Kakashi sensei and I get done eating.' He thought to himself as he brought everything to the coffee table in the living room. The food was done by that time, so they both sat at the kitchen table and started eating.

They ate slowly, talking about Minato mostly. Naruto learned that he was a strict but caring sensei. He also learned that Kakashi had become jounin at the age of 13 which was a record only broken by his father and someone named Itachi Uchiha. Kakashi told him many stories about when he was a genin. He never talked about his teammates though. Which Naruto thought was odd but decided to ask another day. Finally they had finished eating and sat down in the living room. When Kakashi saw the jutsu the boy had picked for himself he was impressed yet again!

"This is a very well rounded arsenal of jutsu for a young ninja like you. Some of these I won't be able to teach you until later in your training of course, but I could definitely teach you one from each element in a pretty short time. Let me look at your father's taijutsu style, from what I remember it required speed strength and the accuracy to be able to hit a major or minor vital point with every strike. To get you ready we will have to start you on an everyday exercise routine." Kakashi looked at the style Minato used and he was right. The boy wouldn't be able to learn this style for a while. But it seemed as if Naruto already knew this because he had gotten a very basic taijutsu style to learn first. "Now I want you to know that learning these jutsu from all the different elements will not be easy. Some will come to you easier than others. Do you know why this is Naruto?" he asked.

"Well if I had to guess it would be because our bodies are born with an affinity to certain elements. Like the Uchiha are usually fire style users. Iruka sensei has been teaching us a little about the difference between all the elements in class. Kakashi sensei? I sort of need to do something before we continue. See my mom and dad both left me letter for when I learned about this place. I waited till today to open moms because I had too much to do yesterday. I'd like to open it now." Naruto smiled and pulled out the letter.

"Got it in one Naruto, you're nothing like what people say you are! Hokage –sama did tell me to expect this though so it's not really a surprise. Yes Naruto go ahead and open it. I'm sure she has left something for you if I know Kushina sensei it will help make you a better ninja, just like what your father left." Kakashi said to the boy. Naruto opened the letter and read:

 _Dear Naruto,_

 _I'm writing this to you in hopes that you'll get it when you earn your chunin rank. I'm so proud of you my son! You're a chunin now so missions will be harder and you will be chosen to lead your comrades on some of them. I wish you luck in all of your training and I hope that you get strong. Now Hiruzen has probably told you a little about me, and I hope that you listened well. I'm your mother and I want to warn you about the three vices of shinobi life. The first is alcohol; you must learn to drink responsibly. The second is money, you must know how to take care of and spend your money from your missions wisely. The third is women. I want you to find a woman that you fall in love with and want to marry! Don't settle for anything less Naruto! I don't have much time left but I wanted to leave you these. I hope they help you to become a stronger shinobi and that you use them well._

 _With love always,_

 _Your mother Kushina Uzumaki_

Naruto read the letter over and over smiling bigger and bigger each time. At the bottom of the letter was a drawing of some sort. He had no idea what it was or wear the gift his mom left him was. "Kakashi sensei what's this?" he asked the jounin about the drawing.

"Oh that is a sealing matrix. Your mother sealed her gift into the letter. You should be able to apply some blood and retrieve whatever she has left for you." Kakashi replied. Naruto did just that and two blood red swords 'poofed' into existence and fell to the floor. Kakashi gaped 'she left him these!' he thought knowing what they were immediately.

"Naruto these were the swords that made your mother known throughout the ninja world as the red hot habanero. They are chakra blades." Kakashi explained and Naruto was ecstatic. He picked them both up and looked them over. Each blade was a little over two and a half feet long. They had a very slight curve upwards on the dull edge and they were wider at the tip than at the base. They looked identical. Each one had four holes in the steel at the base of the blade, about an inch apart, to make for faster swinging. Naruto loved them! He looked at them a little while longer and then set them aside to continue his conversation with his new sensei.

"Ok so if we all have an affinity for an element what's yours? And can we find out what mine is?" the boy asked the jounin, still excited about his gift.

Kakashi smiled, "Well I have a major affinity for lightning and a minor one for earth. Yes, I have brought some chakra paper to test your affinity." He replied. The silver haired jounin pulled out three piece of white paper.

"I want you to touch one of these papers and concentrate. Visualize pouring energy into the slip of paper." Naruto took a piece of paper and did as he was asked. What happened surprised Kakashi, two thirds of the paper was sliced into tiny pieces, but the last part of the paper was crumpled slightly.

"Well Naruto looks like you have two affinities as well. You have a major affinity for wind and a minor one for lightning. This is good. I will be able to help you a lot in strengthening your lightning affinity. Your affinity for wind is another matter however. I know the exercises to help you, but i only know one person in the village with an affinity for wind other than you. Hmmm we will worry about this after you have graduated. You shouldn't be training in elemental manipulation for a while, what we need to do is get you started on the basics. From now on every morning I want you to run five laps around the compound and do 100 sit ups, pushups, punches and kicks. You'll be wearing this beginner set of weights from now on." Kakashi explained and pulled out a set of ten pound weights for the boy to start with.

"Alright Kakashi sensei, If you want to start training today I'm game." Naruto said grinning in his trademark foxy grin. Kakashi laughed at the boy's enthusiasm.

"Alright Naruto go ahead and get started on your workout. When you're finished, come get me and I'll tell you what to do next." Naruto got up enthusiastically and put on his weights before setting off to do the workout Kakashi had set for him. Kakashi looked over the jutsu the boy had picked again and marveled at how well rounded the choices were. This would shape up to be a great partnership between student and sensei, he thought.

 **A/n- Hope you enjoyed the first chapter.**


	2. The Academy, and Friends

**A/n- Alright guys, I'm going to update early this time. My normal update days for this story are going to be Mondays. So my next update for this one will not be until next Monday, not the one coming up in the next couple days, but the one after. Sorry you guy will have to wait so long, but eh, such is life.**

 **I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

 **I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in this story.**

Over the rest of the weekend a routine was made. Kakashi would wake Naruto up at dawn for his exercises and then they would work one the beginner taijutsu katas, which they both knew Naruto needed the most. Kakashi was very strict when it came to these, he would make Naruto do them precisely and repeatedly until he got them down. After an a few hours of drilling him on taijutsu they would work on chakra control.

This was an area that Naruto was seriously lacking in. Kakashi started him on the leaf sticking exercise, it was a control exercise where Naruto would stick a leaf to his skin and keep it there for as long as he could. Once he could keep the leaf there for a certain amount of time, Kakashi would tell him to add another leaf. When he first started he could barely hold it for a few minutes. Soon it started getting easier and he could hold it for longer. Finally he got to the second leaf after the first session of chakra control.

After they worked on control for a few hours, it was time to work on a jutsu. The first one that they worked on was Lightning Style: Static Strings Jutsu, because of their shared chakra natures. Kakashi was immensely enjoying how well his student learned. It was Sunday afternoon and the boy had already moved up to ten leaves on the chakra control exercises.

He had mastered the Static Strings Jutsu and was working on Lightning Style: Lightning Bolt Jutsu. Naruto had also finished learning all of the beginner taijutsu katas from the scroll. He had begun to become slightly proficient in the beginner taijutsu, and while nowhere near mastering it, he was getting better. At the moment he was working on getting the power right on the Lightning Bolt Jutsu. Kakashi was watching him from a perch on a tree limb, while he read the next book in his precious Icha Icha series. It was almost dark and time for them to stop for the day, the sun was setting past the tree line. The light made everything have an orange hue to it.

'This kid is ridiculous! He's been going at this jutsu for almost two and a half hours now, and he's already getting the hang of it!' The silver haired man thought. It was obvious that his student was getting tired.

Aloud the jounin said, "Alright Naruto times up for the day, tomorrow's Monday and you start back at the academy. I'll wake you up in the morning for your exercises and we will pick back up on taijutsu when you get home. I want you to know that I'm proud of how far you've come in these last two days. You're like a sponge, kid! You've learned a lot. Go, get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning." He jumped down from the tree and Naruto thanked him for helping him learn so quickly. They said goodbye and Naruto went to the second room on the first floor which was now his room.

He looked around the room thinking how surreal it was that this was his room. He had never had anything to call his own, besides the small rundown apartment that the Hokage had given him when he found out that the orphanage kicked him out. He was only four when they made him leave, and the Hokage didn't find out until after he turned seven, so those next few years on the streets had been tough for the blonde. It became a little easier once the old man gave him his apartment, but the villagers new where he was then. Now they had no idea! It was like a little slice of paradise for the child. 'Time for bed.' He thought and undressed, before plopping down on his bed. He fell asleep only a few minutes after his head hit the pillow.

In the morning Kakashi knocked on Naruto's door, waking him from his slumber. The boy opened his eyes and got out of bed groggily before getting dressed and answering the door.

"Morning Kakashi sensei" he sleepily said.

"Good morning Naruto, let's get started on your exercises. When you're done I have something for you." Naruto smiled at the thought of his sensei giving him a gift. Without another word he started on his morning routine. He finished the laps about a half hour later, and started on the physical workout. He started with the push-ups. They were becoming easier and easier for him to do. After he finished them he was sweating pretty well. He did his sit ups slowly like his sensei taught him.

About an hour later he was done with everything and he looked up to see the sun poking out of the trees. He smiled, today was going to be a good day! He could feel it. He got Kakashi's attention and told him he was done. "Alright Naruto come inside. We're going to have to do something about that orange jumpsuit of yours." Kakashi said leading him into the house. When they got inside Naruto saw that his sensei had laid out several different shirts and pants for Naruto to pick from.

"But I like my jumpsuit Kakashi sensei! Why do I have to get rid of it?" he asked. The jounin explained that no ninja would be caught dead in that thing and that he was outgrowing it anyway. 'Come on Naruto, can't you see? That damned jumpsuit is completely atrocious!' were the thoughts of the older man.

"I brought a decent selection of clothes for you to choose from. I know you like orange so I had this pair of pants made specially. He held out a pair of black cargo pants that had orange pockets and flame-like designs going up them in line with the pockets.

"What do you think Naruto?" he asked his student. Naruto looked at them for a second and then grinned.

"I love them Kakashi sensei! Thank you. And as for the shirts, I'll keep the crimson one, the blue one, the black one, and the orange one." Kakashi smiled at his student's happiness. He had kept all but one shirt, a green one. He picked them all up and handed them to Naruto.

"Here you go. Think of it as a job well done gift. I'll have some more just like them brought of so that you can start wearing them regularly." The boy smiled and took the clothes.

"Thank you Kakashi sensei. I won't forget this." Naruto said before disappearing into his room. When he came out he was wearing the crimson shirt and the black cargo pants. The shirt had a black version of the Uzumaki swirl on the front, and it was long sleeved, just like all the others, except for the black one, in which the swirl was orange. All in all the boy looked good.

"They look good on your Naruto, I have damn good taste! If I do say so myself" the jounin joked. "Now you better get to the academy, you would want to be late would you? Oh and by the way, at the end of every week I'll be giving you a short test on what you've learned, to make sure that you're paying attention." Naruto grimaced at the thought of being tested twice a week, but smiled nonetheless.

"Alright Kakashi sensei, I'll see you when I get home." He said and was out the door before the jounin could get another word in. It didn't take long for Naruto to get to the academy and when he got there he realized that he was a few minutes early. When he walked in the class, almost everyone noticed the change in clothing. He heard them talking softly, wondering why the young blonde had given up his jumpsuit.

"Nice to see you Naruto, I like the wardrobe change." His lazy friend Shikamaru said. Shikamaru Nara was an average boy for his age. He was taller than a few of his classmates, but shorter than others. He had calculating black eyes that could see a lot more than even the best doujutsu, or eye technique, users. He had an IQ of over 200, but unless you pushed him to show it he wouldn't. He wore a light grey jacket over a mesh armor shirt. His hair was put up in a pineapple like ponytail. His pants were dark grey in color. All in all he was your average boy.

The blonde boy grinned, "That's not all that's changed Shika. Starting today everyone will see the real Naruto Uzumaki. I've decided to quit being a dumbass."

The Nara boy was wide eyes 'So I was right, it was all an act.' He thought and said, "Good, been wondering when you'd finally decide to show up."

Iruka arrived at the classroom and started to take roll, when he called Naruto's name he noticed the change in clothing, but something else was different about the boy as well. He was calmer, more collected, and that for Naruto, was weird. After role call he went on to lecture the students about some of the village's early history. He told them about some of the exploits of Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, and how the village was founded on a truce between the Senju and the Uchiha.

Iruka was a man of average height and build. He had brown hair that he kept in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose, which he received sometime when he was younger. He wore the standard Konoha shinobi outfit complete with forehead protector, sandals, and flak jacket. His sleeves were rolled up about a fourth of the way. He taught well in Naruto's opinion, but he did get a bit boring sometimes.

After the lecture it was time for shuriken and kunai practice. They all filed out of the classroom and went to the academy training grounds. Which was right outside. The students lined up, with Naruto being around the middle behind Choji. Choji Akimichi had spiky, brown hair, swirl marks on his cheeks, and like the rest of his clan, he had a more robust physique. Since his childhood, he had always been quite husky, which was a necessity in his clan to perform their techniques since they converted calories to chakra. Choji wore black shorts, a long white scarf, a short-sleeved, green haori, over a light-green shirt with his clan's obligatory kanji for "food" on it, small, hoop earrings, and his legs and forearms were wrapped in bandages.

They each went through the practice, throwing ten kunai and ten shuriken. Most of the students hit and missed around five, Sasuke Uchiha being the exception. He hit ten on kunai and nine on shuriken. Choji was up now. He hit the first three kunai, missed one and hit three more, missing the rest. He didn't do as well on shuriken, missing six. Finally it was Naruto's turn. He was determined to show just how much they didn't know. He threw all the kunai at once, and hit with all but one. They went in a straight line up and down the post they were aimed at.

This surprised everyone, Iruka especially 'Whats going on? He usually misses all of them and yet he's able to throw ten at once and hit all but one? Today just isn't making any sense!' he thought to himself.

"Very good Naruto it looks like you've improved immensely since your last score on kunai, which was zero. Can you show me that again?" Iruka asked him, wondering if it had just been a fluke. Naruto retrieved his kunai and did the throw again resulting in the same nine out of ten.

"Alright good. Now shuriken," he said. Naruto retrieved shuriken from the pile and this time he threw them separately. The difference between him and everyone else though was that he threw them so fast that only Iruka and Sasuke were able to follow. When he was done they had all hit, again in a straight line up and down the post. 'Wow! What the hell happened to Naruto over the weekend!' were the thoughts of his classmates as Iruka asked him to show him once again. He repeated the process and it resulted in ten out of ten again.

"Very good Naruto, you're now neck and neck with Sasuke when it comes to throwing weapons. Next up is Ino Yamanaka." Naruto went and sat down to watch the rest of practice. After everyone was finished Iruke announced that they would be practicing in taijutsu before class ended. They were to each find a partner and start sparring.

"Hey Sasuke! I challenge you!" he said loudly as he usually did when this part of the class started.

"Alright dobe, but you'll just lose again like you always do. The Uchiha will always be superior!" Sasuke stated as they each got into their stances. Naruto's was different than everyone remembered from last time he and Sasuke had fought. The rest of the class noticed this.

"We will see if you're still saying that after I kick your ass!" Naruto said, and rushed the boy with unexpected speed. The Uchiha ducked under a right hook and went for a knee to Naruto's chest. The attack missed, Naruto had went around the knee and for a sweep kick to Sasuke's legs. This attack landed and Sasuke was on the ground. Naruto waited for the boy to get up and as soon as he had Naruto went for a punch to the raven haired boys shoulder. Sasuke ducked under and went to punch Naruto's face. The attack landed and the blond skidded back a few feet. By this time everyone had stopped fighting to watch. Naruto was still on his feet. He was angry now. He punch Sasuke in the gut and then kneed him in the face. The Uchiha went into the air, grabbing his face at the pain, and Naruto took his chance. He grabbed the boy's foot and slung him at the ground. Sasuke landed on his feet and went for a kick to the knee as soon as Naruto landed, and even though he had just landed on the ground Naruto jumped over the kick and sent a spin kick of his own at Sasuke's head. The Uchiha ducked under it and punched Naruto in the stomach, but to his surprise the boy withstood the pain and punched Sasuke square in the jaw hard. The raven hair boy went flying and Iruka called the match.

"That's enough you two!" he said, although he was very impressed with how much Naruto had improved.

"This match goes to Naruto." Everyone in the class was dumbstruck, 'where the hell did Naruto go and who is this guy? He's good!' they were all thinking except for Shikamaru.

"Show off" he said to the blonde.

'Hmmm, whats up with Naruto today? He seems like he's changed a lot! Dare I say it, but he's almost as cool as Sasuke!' were the thoughts of one Ino Yamanaka, who actually surprised herself at the thoughts she was having about her fellow blonde. Ino was a fair-skinned girl of average height with green eyes. Her most noticeable trait was her long, pale blonde hair, which was always seen in a high-ponytail with bangs covering the right side of her face. Her hair reached down to her waist. She wore a short purple vest like blouse with a raised collar, a purple apron skirt that is cut off on the sides and bandages on her stomach and legs. She also wore purple and white elbow warmers with this. At this particular moment she had a slight pink tinge to her cheeks as she thought about how Naruto had just beaten her longtime crush Sasuke.

Naruto just grinned and said "What? I thought it was about time I showed that prick who he was really dealing with." Everyone in class heard that and a few wondered what he meant by 'really dealing with' Sasuke came over to him and smiled, actually smiled at the blonde. He had caught the real meaning behind what he had said.

"So you've been acting this whole time Naruto? That was a damn good match, I needed it. I'll be sure to kick your ass next time, though" the Uchiha said stunning the blonde. It was as if the Uchiha had a new respect for the blonde, which in truth, he did. He had never been beaten that badly by anyone exact for his brother. It just meant that he would have to train harder to beat Naruto the next time. From that day he decided that Naruto would be his rival. Naruto didn't know this of course, but the Uchiha would strive to beat him even worse than he had lost. Class was over for the day, so they all headed home. Most were wondering what had changed in Naruto and when. Little did they know that the Naruto they knew was only a cover to gain friends.

Naruto hurried home and when he got there Kakashi was waiting on the couch. Naruto excitedly told him what happened that day and how he had beaten Sasuke. He also told him what the boy said.

The jounin smiled, "That's good Naruto, from what you're telling me Sasuke respects that you're someone that he can be given a challenge by in the future. Make sure to keep that rivalry alive. You two will strive to make each other better, even if you aren't on the same team. I'm sure the rest of your class was very surprised in the change that you've gone through as well" he said and Naruto agreed, no one except for Shikamaru and Sasuke had even known what to make of it. He was glad that he had taken the old man's advice and shown everyone who he truly was.

"Alright Naruto from now until you're ready to learn your father's style you will be sparring with a clone of me. Your goal is to land a hit and make the clone dispel before you graduate. If you can do that I'll teach you the jutsu I'm using to make the clone, you'll need it if you're going to graduate in the first place, you'll never have the control to make a simple illusionary clone by then, with your reserves." Naruto nodded excitedly about the prospect of possibility learning a new jutsu. Kakashi summoned a shadow clone and Naruto got started on trying to land a hit.

He had no success whatsoever. When he would almost land a hit the clone would dodge at the last second. This went on for about an hour before Kakashi dispelled the clone and told him it was times up. The scare-crow ninja jumped down from his perch and told Naruto that he would get it eventually.

"So you've gotten to the point of leaf sticking that its time you go to the next level. Pebble sticking. This will be much harder because of the added weight of the pebbles and because of your large reserves. I want you to start with on and hold it for as long as you can, when you can hold it for half an hour you can add another. Your goal for this exercise is twenty pebbles, ten on each arm." Naruto got to work, but could only hold the pebble for five minutes before it dropped.

'Damn! This is way harder than I thought.' He worked on holding the pebble for another hour and could only get to stick for ten minutes. After they were done with chakra control, Kakashi had him finish learning the lightning style jutsu that they had been working on. Naruto worked hard in it and finally had it down at the end of that hour. Kakashi was impressed. This boy was learning fast!

"Alright Naruto I think that's it for lightning style until you've gotten all the others down. How about we move on to an element that isn't one of your affinities. I'll even let you pick." Naruto grinned and told Kakashi that he wanted to learn fire style next. Kakashi explained the basis of fire style jutsu, and that Naruto would have to put a chakra coating over the inside of his throat to keep from being burned when he did the jutsus. Naruto listened to his teacher and began to start trying to coat his throat with a layer of chakra. Kakashi then explained how to execute Fire Style: Fire Wave Jutsu and showed him what it would look like, as Naruto got to work on learning the jutsu his sensei was trying to teach him, said sensei jump back up into the tree and started reading his pervy book again. Naruto looked to be having quite the time with this jutsu and it seemed like it would take him a while to learn it.

'Thank Kami! At least there's something that will challenge this student of mine!' he thought as he watched the blonde work while he read.

-APL-

Iruka Umino was on his way to the hokage's office to talk to him about a certain blonde student of his. When he got there he was let into his office and when he got inside the hokage smiled. He was expecting the chunin to come and see him today.

"Hello Iruka, what brings you here today?" he asked the chunin.

"Well sir, Naruto has uhh changed since last week he was at the academy and I was wondering if you knew anything about it?" the Hokage chuckled and asked Iruka to tell him about this change of Naruto's.

"Well, first he came in dressed differently today. He also seemed calmer, and more reserved. When I would ask a question he would have his hand up with the right answer before I even finished! On top of that he's now on par with Sasuke in weapon throwing skills and he beat the Uchiha rather badly in a taijutsu match today. Everyone in my class were completely surprised by this change, except for one Shikamaru Nara. He seemed like he knew all along. Can you please tell me whats going on with Naruto, Hokage-Sama?" iruka explained and then asked.

The Hokage laughed, actually laughed. "My, well it seems that young Naruto has fooled us all, eh Iruka? The only explanation that I can give you for his change is that the Naruto you saw today was the real Naruto. He has been acting like a dead-last so that he could befriend his classmates easier. He is very intelligent in truth and skilled as well. I gave him the advice to take off the mask he has been hiding behind a few nights ago, and it seems as if he has done just that." The Hokage smiled thinking of the other night and his conversation with the blonde. Iruka was surprised to say the least!

"So you're saying that he's been faking it this entire time? That he isn't the dead-last, but really that he an intelligent and skilled ninja? Well this is a surprise. I wonder why none of us higher ups never caught on to his act." Iruka said and the Hokage told him that the boy had fooled them all. The only one that knew was his friend Shikamaru, and that was only because Shikamaru was his friend and because the Nara was a genius in his own right.

Iruka nodded at this knowing that the Nara had purposefully been getting mediocre grades the whole year. Iruka had thought that he didn't want to stand out, or that he was simply lazy. In truth he would have been right in both. Shikamaru was very adamant about being average, of course he didn't vocalize this, but it showed in every aspect of his life.

"So what am I supposed to do with this new Naruto? By the way things are going he will give Sasuke a run for his money as rookie of the year." The Hokage just replied by telling him to teach him like all of his other students. Iruka nodded and the hokage dismissed him.

'That's the way you show 'em Naruto!' he thought privately.

-APL-

Back with Naruto, the blonde still hadn't made hardly any progress with the jutsu he was working on. He knew the hand signs and could do them perfectly but when he did, he only blew out a few inches of fire from his mouth. It seemed as if he would never get this one down. He'd been at it for three hours now and Kakashi felt it was time to call it a night.

"Alright Naruto that's enough for today, we will pick back up in the morning." Naruto nodded grimly and kakashi reassured him that fire style was one of the hardest elements to get the hang of, other than wind. Naruto felt a little better after that, but he resigned himself to a new goal. If fire was one of the hardest elements to get, then he would be sure to master it as quickly as he could! They both went inside.

"I'll see you tomorrow Naruto," Kakashi said as he disappeared in a shunshin. Naruto went to go and get a shower and then quickly fell asleep in his bed, he was exhausted!

The next few days flew by for Naruto. He was either in the academy, training with Kakashi, or sleeping from exhaustion due to the latter. He still hadn't hit the clone and didn't think he would for a while, but he would damned sure keep trying! He was only up to two pebbles in chakra control, but it was slowly getting easier. As for the fire style jutsu he had been working on, he was a lot closer to finishing it. He could now spray about two feet of fire from his mouth instead of a few inches. His relationships with his classmates had improved greatly now that they didn't think he was a dobe. They respected him now as a fellow peer and skilled ninja. The guys talked to him about their hobbies, and even the girls seemed to start warming up to him.

Today was the day he had been waiting for all week! Friday, it was the day at the academy that tests were given. He was determined to ace this one and the one that Kakashi would give him back home. He was in the middle of taking the test now and realized that it was one of the easiest things he had ever done! All he had to do was listen during lectures and the answers were right there. He quickly finished the test and put his pencil down before dozing off until he heard the class bell ring.

He sat upright and watched as Iruka sensei picked up all the tests. After they were all picked up, he bid his class farewell until next week and they all left the classroom. Naruto raced home to take the test Kakashi had prepared for him. He noticed the glares of hatred that he got by the villagers, as usual, but he didn't care about them anymore! He was who he was and that wasn't going to change! As he neared the compound he slowed down a bit. He saw Kakashi waiting for him at the door and the jounin nodded at his student signaling that his test was inside. Naruto walked in the door and saw a piece of paper on the coffee table.

'Damn another written test?' he grimaced but sat down and started answering the questions as best he could. The questions were a lot harder than they were at the academy, but he took his time and answered each one fully and to the best of his ability. When he was finished with the 25th question he walked outside to tell kakashi that he was done.

"That was hard Kakashi sensei! I'm done now, though, so get your lazy ass in there and grade me." Naruto joked with his sensei. He walked out into the yard and looked around. Man he loved this place! It was so peaceful and quiet here, and also out of the way of everything. He had thought about putting a small pond in the back that he could fill with fish, but that would have to wait until after he graduated in three more years. He'd need to go on more than a few missions to get that much money up! Still, he loved to fish and his back yard would be the perfect place for that to happen. He wouldn't be bother and he was sure Kakashi would spend time chatting with him at the pond, when they weren't training. He looked up, the sun was shining brightly and the leaves of the trees were fluttering in the wind.

He was brought out of his daze by Kakashi, who had finished grading the test. "Very good Naruto, you only missed one out of all twenty five! Here is your test back." He gave Naruto the test and the blonde saw that the one he missed was about the exercises for chakra control. He was supposed to name all of the ones they had gone over, but he had forgotten to put the two he himself had worked on!

"Aww, Kakashi sensei that isn't fair, I thought you were only talking about the ones from the academy. Which are chakra leaping and reinforced sprinting." Kakashi laughed and told him that he had said all the chakra control exercises. If he had wanted just those to the question would have mentioned the academy. Naruto begrudgingly agreed and Kakashi suggested that they get to work.

Naruto spent an hour trying with no luck to hit the thrice damned clone! In the end he was no closer than when they started the exercise. He then started back on chakra control. He stuck two pebbles to his skin. He was finally able to hold them both for half an hour, so he added a third. After four minutes they dropped. "Dammit this exercise is so hard!" he exclaimed and tried again until he was able to keep them there for a full ten minutes, if only barely. After control it was back to ninjutsu. The blonde was determined to master Fire Style: Fire Wave today! He worked on it for three more hours until it started getting dark. He was so close! He tried one more time and finally was able to hit the three foot mark and spread the flames around him in almost a semicircle.

"Finally! I finally did it Kakashi sensei!" he yelled when he got to that point and the jounin watched as he performed the jutsu just as he was supposed to. Kakashi eye smiled.

"Good job Naruto! Tomorrow we will work on your next jutsu, the Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu. This will be a much harder jutsu to master because you will have to infuse enough chakra into each fireball to make it sustain flame for at least fifteen feet." The jounin explained and the blonde grinned like he usually did at the prospect of learning a new jutsu.

"Let go to ichirakus tonight. You've earned it Naruto" Kakashi said knowing that the boy responded well to rewards of ramen.

"Thank you Kakashi sensei. Let's go!" Naruto took off running towards his favorite restaurant of all time. When he got there kakashi was already there.

"Hey no fair! You used shunshin didn't you? You've got to teach me that someday sensei!" the jounin laughed as they headed inside. The ramen stand was empty. Teuchi welcomed them and asked for their order. Kakashi ordered a chicken ramen and Naruto ordered his usual three bowls of miso. They ate while talking about the training and Naruto asked how long the jounin thought it would be before he learned all the jutsu that he had picked.

"Well Naruto at the rate you're going I would say it's still another two years before you master them all. Some of those jutsu aren't even taught to genin, let alone academy students. You're doing really well!" Naruto frowned for a second because he thought that it would have taken him less time. Then he smiled at the praise of his sensei.

"Thank you Kakashi sensei. I know I wouldn't be learning this fast without you're help. You've helped me understand each of the jutsu inwards and outward. That's the only reason I'm learning so fast." Kakashi thanked him for the vote of confidence, but told him that it was the hard work and dedication he put into learning that was the reason for him picking up on the jutsu so quickly. Naruto smiled at that, and they finished eating their meals. Kakashi paid the shop owner and they walked back to the compound. Once they got there Kakashi bid his student farewell and left in a shunshin. Naruto walked inside his house and looked around. He was tired after a long day of hard work.

He looked over to where his mother's swords still stood. He couldn't use them yet for a couple reasons. He was still too short to wield them properly, and Kakashi sensei had told him to wait until he graduated, when that day came he would find a teacher for the boy. Little did the blonde know, his teacher was actually watching over him from afar at this very moment, just like the hokage had told her to do? He decided that until he could properly use his mom's weapons, he would hang them on the wall of the living room. It was a reminder of what was to come. After he hung them, he went and got a shower and went to sleep in his bed.

-APL-

More weeks flew by, those weeks turned into months, over this time Naruto had become very strong for his age. The only student in his class able to keep up was Sasuke. They had fought every chance they got, with Naruto losing some and winning others. The other students in his class also started to train harder because of his growth in skill. None of them wanted to be left behind by Naruto, the ex-dead-last of the academy.

Even Shikamaru started to take his training more seriously and occasionally asked Naruto for a spar every now and then. He had progressed far in his tutelage under Kakashi. After about three weeks working on the phoenix flower jutsu, he had it down to the point that it needed to be. He was up to ten pebbles on one arm now, but could only hold them for three minutes. In chakra control his progress was slowing, but that didn't hinder the blonde. He kept at it every day. They had started to work on the Water Style: Water Whip Jutsu and Naruto was getting close to mastering it already. It had been a month since they started on the jutsu though, so that was to be expected.

Naruto still hadn't hit the clone even once, and it infuriated him to no end! After the second month of training Kakashi had increased his weights to twenty pounds, which was a big difference. At first the blonde had a little trouble with his added weight, but after a few days of getting used to it he was at the speed he started at the beginning of their training, which was bearable for the blonde. Kakashi also let the blonde take his weights off to spar with a clone, but told him that it wouldn't count if he hit it, that changed their existing taijutsu regimen immensely. He would try and hit the clone with the weights and then he would get his ass pummeled into the ground when he took them off, Kakashi made sure that the clone fought back, if only just a little, then. Now he could move freely and easily with the added weight.

Naruto had also started to read the books had had gotten from his parents library, he studied all of the books on elemental manipulation over and over again, because Kakashi wouldn't let him move on until he was on a genin team, with that subject at least. He had started reading the genjutsu book as well but knew that he would never be able to cast a successful one. The sealing book was the last that he tried to read and it was the most complex by far. He had read it three times now and was only just starting to get a beginners understanding of the complex art of sealing.

It was now into the sixth month that they had been training, and today was a day that he had been waiting for, for weeks now. It was October tenth, Naruto Uzumaki's birthday. Today was the day ten years ago that his parents had saved the village and sealed the fox inside of him. It made him proud of them every time he thought about it, and brought a smile to his face. He had asked the Hokage what he could do about having a birthday party, now that he had more than two friends.

Hiruzen had told him that he could have the party at his house, but had to hide everything of Minato's and Kushina's beforehand. The blonde didn't like the idea of hiding who he was from his friends, but knew that he couldn't tell them yet. Naruto knew that he wasn't near strong enough to protect himself from whoever his mother and fathers many enemies may have been. He also knew that once it was out, he would paint a target on his back. This was something he could not do yet, so for now, even though he hated it he would keep the secret.

He had been getting ready for the party for almost a week now. All of his friends from the academy were invited, and Kakashi of course. The house was clean of anything that remained of his mom and dad. He had taken it all and hidden it below in the library. After he was sure everything was hidden he covered the trap door with a rug that covered the whole landing. The only thing that remained of his parents were the two swords, which he was just about to take down for the night.

"Leave them Naruto. Anyone that comes tonight will not know anything about what they are or who they belong to. Your mother isn't really in the history books, after all" Kakashi said from behind him. Naruto asked the jounin if he was sure that no one would know. The jounin replied by putting them back on the wall.

"You should have at least one thing to remind you of them on your birthday Naruto." He said. "Now since it's your birthday you're training is suspended for the day. I want you to have fun and don't think about training. Also, I have something for you, it's a birthday gift. I'll bring it by whenever the party starts. I'm sure you'll get plenty of presents from your friends though." Kakashi eye smiled at his prized pupil and ruffled the boy's hair. The silver haired jounin told Naruto that he would be back in a few hours once the party started and disappeared in a shunshin.

'I can't wait till he teaches me that!' Naruto thought and started getting everything ready for the actual party. The house was spotless, so he started putting out food and drinks for his friends to enjoy. After putting everything out he decided to pull out Tales of a Gutsy Ninja. It had been a long time since he had last read anymore in his dad's sensei's book. He started reading and before he know it, two hours had passed and he heard a knock at the door. He bookmarked his place in the book and put it away before going to answer the door.

It was Shikamaru and Choji, two of his best friends from the academy. "Hey guys, you made it, you two are the first here so come in sit down and have a drink." Naruto said cheerily. Tonight he was wearing all orange and black. He had the long sleeve orange shirt and his usual cargo pants on. The two came in and smiled before getting a glass of punch and sitting down.

"Wow Naruto, who knew you had a place this big! Where'd it come from?" Choji asked in awe of the house. Naruto explained that the Hokage had given it to him as a birthday present a year ago.

"The old man felt sorry for me so he set me up here. I love it though and honestly haven't thanked him enough!" Naruto replied. Another knock at the door and Kiba Inuzuka, along with Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame came in. they all complimented him about the house and sat down with Shika and Choji. Pretty soon the whole place was filled with his friends from the academy.

Even Sasuke showed up saying "Well I couldn't miss my rival's birthday now could I?"

They were all sitting in the living room talking when Kakashi showed up with his trademark, "You knew I was coming." and a small box in hand.

'Who's this guy?' they all wondered. After everyone had arrived and Kakashi had been formally introduced as Naruto's friend. The party was in full swing. Everyone had a conversation going about something, even the ever shy Hinata was talking to Ino and Sakura. Naruto couldn't quite make out what they were saying but none of it mattered to him! He had friend, and they were here celebrating his birthday. Shikamaru and Choji were talking about there clans. He and Sasuke were talking about different jutsu and there uses. He found the raven hair boy to be a good friend to talk ninja stuff with. He mentioned something about possibly coating a kunai in a fire jutsu and launching it. Naruto looked around at all the people in his house. They were all happy to be here and that made him feel better than ever.

"Alright you guys it's time for the birthday boy to have us sing to him" Kakashi said in a way that only he could. Most of his friends laughed at the weird jounin, but started to sing happy birthday for him nonetheless. Kakashii motioned for him to get up there, so he walked over to the jounin and looked out onto all of his new friends singing happy birthday to him. He did something he would never do in front of all these people. His eyes started to tear up. After they finished singing, while wiping them away he told all of his friends.

"Thank you, thank you all for being here with me tonight. I've never really had celebrated my birthday with friend before, or even had friends to celebrate with. This means so much to me, more than you guys will ever know." He walked into the circle of all of his friends and they all hugged him, not realizing how hard a life the blonde had really had. Kakashi looked on this and was happy for his student.

'I'm glad that he finally has what he needed. The friendship and recognition of his peers.' He thought before graciously breaking it all up by saying "alright present time! Who wants to go first?" they all laughed and just set their gifts onto the kitchen table.

Naruto walked up and started looking through them. The first he opened was Shikamaru's. It was a square, but not tall box. When Naruto opened it he grinned. It was a Shogi board. "That so you can learn to play and I can actually give you a challenge, for once." The pineapple haired boy said smiling at the blonde. Naruto told him that he'd definitely take him up on that challenge once he learned to play.

The next present was Chojis and it was a coupon for his family's barbeque restaurant. He had laughed and said that Naruto should come by and eat something other than ramen for a change. Naruto thanked him and told him that he would. He got a novel from Sakura. She told him that she really liked it so she thought that he might too. It looked like a romance novel, which Naruto thought he would never get into but he thanked her for it, smiling. After that, the night went by fast. He opened up all the gifts from his friends.

He thanked each and every one of them over and over for coming to his party. They all ate cake and talked about the academy and what kinds of ninja they wanted to be. They all sat and talked for hours until it was time for them to be home. Naruto said goodbye to his friends and noticed that Kakashi had stayed behind. He wondered why and then remember that the jounin had never given him the gift he talked about earlier.

Kakashi sat on the couch with Naruto and gave him one if his trademark eye-smiles. "I'm glad you have found friends that you care about Naruto. It's what your parents would have wanted most for you. My gift for you is one that minato gave to me a long time ago. I'm sure he has many more in the library but I wanted you to have this one because it's special to me. He gave it to me as my sensei and now I'm giving it to you, as yours." Kakashi opened the small box he held and pulled out a weirdly shaped kunai. It had three prongs and some sort of seal on the handle.

"This is one of your dad's hiraishin kunai, he gave it to me so that he could be there anytime I was in danger. He was able to teleport to through the seal on the handle. I'm giving it to you because I want you to know that if you're ever in danger or need anything, I'll be there." The jounin explained.

Naruto smiled at that. "Thank you Kakashi sensei. And thank you very much for the gift. It means a lot." Kakashi and Naruto continued to talk about his dad for a while and then kakashi had to leave for the night.

"I'll be over in the morning and we will pick back up on your training." He said before disappearing. ' _Alright now that I'm alone what to do'_ he thought. He looked over all of his gifts. Ino had given him a book on flowers. Sasuke had given him a scroll containing a fire jutsu, which he would definitely enjoy learning. It was the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu. Kiba had given him a set of kunai and shuriken. Hinata-chan had given him a book on intermediate chakra control, which he looked forward to reading. The last gift he got was from Shino, and it was a book on insects. He liked all of his gifts very much.

He decided that it was time to clean up and then get some sleep. He cleaned up the entire house of all the party stuff and then went to get a shower. After his shower he decided to go and see the Hokage, I was his birthday after all. He walked outside and noticed the chilly breeze on his skin. It felt good. He walked all the way to the old man's office and the receptionist let him in.

"Hey gramps, how ya been?" he said smiling. The old hokage wasn't all too surprised to see him. It was the boy's birthday after all.

"Hey Naruto-kun sorry I wasn't able to make it tonight. Being the Hokage is a very busy job. Happy birthday Naruto." He said and took a drag from his pipe. They talked for a while. Naruto told him all about his birthday and the gifts he got.

"Well it seems as if you've had a very eventful night Naruto-kun. I'm happy that you've made such good friends. I have something for you as well" Naruto asked what the old man had for him. Hiruzen got out of his chair and went to the picture of his dad. He pulled the right side outward and it swung open. He unlocked the safe behind it and pulled out a small key.

"This key unlock any door of your house. Keep it safe for me Naruto." He handed the young blond the key. Naruto thanked the Hokage and smiled before telling him that he needed to go home and get some sleep. The hokage bid Naruto goodnight and Naruto headed back to his house.

When he got the he knew exactly where to go. He walked through his home until he was in front of the locked door that he had almost forgotten about. He slid the key into the knob and turned it, unlocking the door. He slowly opened it and fell to his knees when he realized what it was. There were tears in the boy's eyes now.

The room had been his; it was his room when he was first born. He sat there for the longest time, just looking into what used to be baby narutos room. He smiled and stood up. His baby crib sat against the far right wall. There were many baby toys and playthings that he would have played with over the years. Everywhere he looked, he saw another memento from his parents. Then and there he decided that the room wouldn't be disturbed again. He smiled with tears still in his eyes looking around him again. After he had filled his mind with memories of the room he left it and locked the door once more. After that our young Naruto drifted off to his bedroom and went to sleep. This had been the best birthday of his life!


	3. Graduation!

**About three years later: Graduation Day**

It was finally here! The day our favorite young blond would become a full-fledged ninja, and Naruto was excited. These last three years had been hell for him but it was all worth it. His training had been utterly grueling. Kakashi had not gone easy on him in the slightest. They worked every day to make him as strong as he could be. Six months ago, the hard work they were doing paid off when he finally mastered the last of the jutsu he had picked for Kakashi to teach him. As of right now he had fifteen jutsu under his belt. About three months ago he finally landed a hit on that damned clone of Kakashi's making the silver hair jounin teach him the jutsu he had been using. It was the shadow clone jutsu and Naruto had taken to it like a fish to water. His chakra reserves were so high that he was able to summon hundreds of clones at a time. This had surprised the hell out of his sensei the first time he had done it. Kakashi had begun to think of ways that they could use this to their advantage, while training. The last set of jutsu he had learned were the wind style jutsus. Kakashi said that because they part of his major affinity he would teach them to the boy last. He learned them very quickly.

Over the last three years Naruto had gotten exponentially stronger. Training every day with a jounin had its benefits after all. He was up to 50 pounds on his weights and he could move freely and easily with them. Kakashi had not increased them further because he didn't want the boy's growth to be stunted. His speed was now up to high genin level with them on and very low chunin level with them off. He wasn't even close to a certain green spandex clad genin, just yet, but with another few years who knows! He had also been working on all of the elemental manipulations and was close to finishing the leaf exercises with each of them, but had mastered the first steps of wind and lightning manipulation almost a year ago now. He of course knew all of the academy jutsu, but still wasn't able to perform a simple clone. This was because he had such huge reserves thanks to his tenant. He had expected this and besides, he now had the shadow clone jutsu to make up for it. He and his tenant hadn't spoken yet, because Kakashi had forbidden Naruto from trying. He didn't want the boy to be influenced by the fox, and was afraid that if he let the blonde speak to the demon that it would try to gain freedom from the boy. This, however wasn't true, but we can get to that later.

His fellow academy students had all began to improve by leaps and bound too and by this time they were all mid to high genin level. They looked to him for guidance in their training and he had helped each of them train and given some of them element jutsu to learn for their birthdays. Speaking of birthdays, Naruto was now thirteen and damned proud if it! His friends had given him a birthday party every year since he met Kakashi. He was very thankful to the jounin and the Hokage for giving him the advice that helped him gain the friendships that he now had.

Naruto and Sasuke had become very close, in the year and a half following his tenth birthday. His rival Sasuke had been able to keep up with him all this time and they still continued to spar every chance that they got. Sasuke was now almost as strong as Naruto. They were neck and neck thanks to the fact that Naruto had introduced him to his training regimen soon after his birthday. Sasuke had come to him the day after and asked him to help him get stronger, so the blonde got Kakashi's permission and started to help his friend train. They trained together relentlessly and Naruto helped Sasuke in every way he could, even teaching Sasuke some of the fire and lightning jutsu he had learned. Sasuke coincidentally shared lightning nature with Naruto, but unlike the blonde he had a strong fire nature, instead of wind. Six months after his birthday, they were training together and Sasuke asked him about why the villagers hated him.

-Flashback-

The sun was starting to set. Sasuke and Naruto were finally done sparring. Sasuke won this one, and at this point they were dead even with wins and losses. They fought each other almost every day now, it was almost ritualistic for the two rivals.

"Dobe. That was a good match. Guess were even, huh" Sasuke had been being surprisingly open towards the blonde as time went by. He shared his emotions and talked a lot more when it was just him and Naruto.

"Teme, just you wait! Ill beat you next time." Naruto chuckled, and replied.

Sasuke looked at his rival, contemplating something. He had started noticing the looks the villagers gave him. The looks of disgust and contempt. The mutterings, and whispers behind the blondes back. He wondered about it more and more with each day that passed.

"Naruto." Naruto looked up surprised at hearing his name from the raven hair boy next to him. Sasuke looked at his blonde friend questioning with his eyes. "Why do the villagers hate you?"

Naruto started sweating inwardly at the question. He hadn't been expecting this in the slightest. 'Oh crap, what am I supposed to do? If I tell him, he's going to feel the same way as they do...' he thought worried that he would lose his best friend.

Sasuke could see that his friend was worried. "Naruto whatever it is, I'm not going to look at you any differently. Were aren't best friends for nothing you know."

"Do you remember the story Iruka sensei told us about how the Fourth Hokage killed the Kyuubi?" Naruto asked the raven haired boy. Sasuke nodded and Naruto then proceeded to tell Sasuke the real story. How the Fourth couldn't kill the Kyuubi, so he sealed it into a baby boy. He told Sasuke that he was Kyuubi's container. His friend was shocked! He felt sorry for his friend, knowing that the whole village hated him for something he couldn't even control! It was absurd, that they would come to such a conclusion.

"I'm sorry, Naruto." Sasuke looked at his friend, with an empathetic gaze.

"Don't be, I've dealt with it my whole life Sasuke. Nothing's changed." Naruto replied. With a little time Sasuke realized that his friend was right. Nothing had changed in the slightest.

-Flashback end-

Something had happened about a year after Naruto confessed about his tenant, that Naruto thought the boy would never come back from. His whole clan had been slaughtered by Sasuke's older brother and it tore his psyche to shreds. The raven haired boy had changed completely from Naruto best friend to someone that he had barely been able to talk to, the blond couldn't blame him though. He had no idea how he would have reacted to something so tragic and horrible. After it happened he tried over and over to get Sasuke to talk to him, to no avail. It was like he shut himself off from the world and all of his friends. Naruto never gave up on him though and finally eight months ago he had made sort of a breakthrough with his best friend and rival.

-Flashback-

It was a day at the academy like any other and it was time for taijutsu spars. Naruto yelled out to Sasuke who, lately, had just been finding the weakest opponent he could and utterly destroying them until today. Naruto was determined to get his friend to fight him this time. He knew that the best way they could talk things through would be through their fists!

"Hey Uchiha, stop fighting weaklings and actually live up to that name of yours! Fight me!" the Uchiha had denied all of his other requests to spar but Naruto had hit a nerve with the boy today.

"Hn" he replied like all the other times, but this time he got up and into a fighting stance across from Naruto. It was the standard Uchiha stance. Naruto had seen it a hundred times, and knew a little about what to expect from his friend.

The blond grinned and got into his own fighting stance, which was the beginnings of the Roaring Dragon style. Kakashi had started teaching it to him a few months earlier and he hadn't shown anyone yet. The Uchiha hadn't shown any outward tell that he was surprised, but in truth he was. He knew that Naruto would never show something off unless he had been working on it for a while. It reminded him of when the blond had shown him the completed fire ball jutsu. Sasuke had complimented him saying it was just as good as his own, and then smiling at the blond.

The two rushed each other Sasuke going for a strike to Naruto's face first. Naruto countered by ducking and hitting him hard in the knee. The Uchiha had trouble moving after that, but kept on pressing the blond. Naruto kept going for the minor vital spots as his style dictated. Soon the Uchiha was in really bad shape. He had been beaten and he knew it. He kept going though, not willing to admit defeat this time. He threw a punch at Naruto, which the blonde blocked. He looked at his friend.

"Sasuke why don't we stop this?" the blond asked knowing how much his friend had to be hurting physically.

"I will not be beaten by you again! My clan is superior!" he said and kept attacking blindly with rage.

Naruto soon had him on the ground. He tried to get up but couldn't.

"Stop acting like such a victim Sasuke! I know how horrible it must have been to watch what your brother did, but you can't let it consume you! Get off your lazy ass and train, train until you drop and when the time comes for your revenge I'll help you kill that bastard!" Sasuke had been shocked to hear to blond say this.

"What would you know about loss Naruto? You never had a family, you could never know what I'm going through!" the Uchiha replied, still on the ground.

Naruto picked the boy up off the ground and said, "You're right, I don't know what it's like to lose someone. I never had those bonds to begin with. I do know that if I ever lost one of those precious to me, including your dumbass, I'd want revenge for them. I know that acting sorry does nothing. You know what kind of life I've led so far, how long do you think I felt sorry for myself before I started trying to change it? Well let me tell you! It was years before I finally decided to pick myself up and get stronger, to show this village that I'm worth the trouble I give them!" Sasuke looked at Naruto, who for the first time in almost two years had tears in his eyes.

"If you want to feel sorry for yourself fine, but don't expect me to. I know you're better than that Sasuke. I will help you get your revenge one day! Believe it!" Naruto made his trademark promise of a lifetime to the boy that had become one of his closest friends.

-Flashback end-

Sasuke had started to change after that, from his brooding pity filled self, back to the friend that Naruto knew. There was still a darker side to the raven haired boy, even now, but slowly he was coming back. They still trained together very often.

Naruto had also been working on his sealing, which he was slowly improving at. He was still nowhere near even intermediate level, but the blond worked hard. He had finished all of the beginner chakra control exercises that Kakashi had for him as well. Pebble sticking had been the last for beginners. Kakashi now had him working on tree walking, which had been hard at first. He was slowly getting higher and higher up the tree each day, though.

He had developed a more extensive routine now. He would get up before Kakashi got there and walk as far as he could up the tree until Kakashi got there, then he would do his workout which was up to 250 of everything with a few stretches added beforehand. After his workout it was off to the academy where he would read over one of his beginner element books. When he got home he and the clone would spar in taijutsu. He was beginning to get the hang of his father's style now, and had to admit that it was extremely lethal. After that he would work on the tree walking exercise for another hour. Then he would spend the next three running through each of the jutsu he had learned several times, trying to speed of his hand sign forming. After ninjutsu he and Kakashi would spar in all aspects of the shinobi arts. The silver haired jounin never held back, and Naruto had yet to even land a hit on the man. After their spar Naruto would work on one of the elements specifically.

He worked on a different one each day except Saturday, which was calligraphy day. He needed to be able to write perfectly, if he hoped to get any better at sealing. After working on the elements he would go inside as it was usually dark by this time, and read one of the many books that he had been studying. After that he would get a shower and either go to sleep or to spend time with one of his friends.

He and Shikamaru played shogi regularly and he had been able to give the pineapple haired boy a run for his money on several occasions. He and the girls of his class went to dinner all the time at Ichiraku, but he didn't really feel anything for any of them yet. His crush for Sakura had gone away a long time ago when he had realized that she only had eyes for Sasuke. He also had no idea how any of them felt for him though. When he and Choji spent time together it was usually eating barbeque at his family's restaurant. He enjoyed his time there very much, although he got many glares from the villagers that ate there. He overlooked it though, that aspect of his life would probably never change and he knew it. When he and Kiba hung out it was usually Naruto helping the boy train. He liked helping all of his friends train and did whenever he could.

-APL-

Naruto woke up early on the morning of the graduation exam and began to train. He knew that training stopped for nothing, not even the day he became a ninja! Kakashi got there early, knowing that his favorite student would already be up. "Naruto! Come down here."

The blond was surprised and fell down to the ground "Owww" he groaned as he got up. Kakashi looked at the shirtless form of his student.

The boy had changed physically over the last few years as well. His body was now a chiseled machine. His muscles were lithe and able to move quickly and he never wasted a movement. He had grown taller too, now standing at around five foot tall, he wasn't the tallest student in his class, but he wasn't the shortest either anymore. All in all, he had grown into a fine young soon-to-be genin. He still wore the different colored shirts and the black cargo pants, but he had outgrown the first set a year ago when he had hit a small growth spurt.

"Why don't you take the day off, we will pick up tomorrow with your team. That way they can get used to the way you train." Kakashi told the boy. Naruto had picked up on the fact that Kakashi had said 'we'.

"Wait, so does that mean you're going to be my jounin sensei when I get my team?" Naruto asked, relieved that that would be the case. Kakashi smiled at his student's attention to detail.

"Well now that the cats out of the bag I guess I can't lie to you. Yes, I'll be your sensei on Team 7" Kakashi replied giving the boy an eye smile. Naruto was even more relieved at hearing it. He hadn't wanted to change to another sensei. In his mind no one would be able to teach him as well as Kakashi sensei had.

"Alright well since I'm taking the day off do you want to go inside and get some breakfast?" He asked. The jounin nodded and they went inside. Naruto cooked the two of them eggs and bacon for breakfast and they ate, talking about what it would mean for Naruto to finally be a genin.

"You'll be going on missions as a team. You'll do pretty much everything you can think of with your new team. You'll train together and learn from each other as well as from me." Kakashi told the blond. After they ate it was time for Naruto to go to the academy for his test and to receive his headband.

Before he left, Naruto said, "You had better not be late Kakashi." Then he grinned in his now trademark foxy way. Kakashi laughed at this and decided then and there that he would be.

-APL-

After Naruto left for the Academy, Kakashi shunshined to the Hokage tower. He was supposed to have a talk with the Hokage and the other jounin about the teams that they would be given. He already knew that the Hokage would give him Naruto, but hadn't the slightest idea about who his other two genin would be.

Hiruzen told him to enter, not showing that he was surprised that the silver haired jounin was on time for a change.

The other jounin, however didn't show him this courtesy. "Where's the fire Kakashi, I wasn't expecting you here for at least another three hours!" Asuma, who was the Hokage's son said and laughed, along with the rest of the jounin there. The only one that didn't laugh was a young woman with dark brown hair and crimson eyes. She had a very nice figure, and her name was Kurenai if Kakashi remembered correctly. It wasn't a surprise to him that she hadn't laughed, she had only just become jounin, after all.

"Well, I have to be here to make sure I get who I want the most. Now, don't I Asuma?" he replied in a cool manner. A tic mark appeared on Asuma's head.

"Alright, calm down you two, we need to get this meeting started. There have been a few changes in the grades of the students in the last couple years, so the roster isn't the same as it would have been if things had stayed the same. Naruto and Sasuke are now neck and neck with each other for rookie of the year. If Naruto's grades had stayed the same he would have been put on the same team as the Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, who has the best grades of the females, with Hinata Hyuuga right behind her."

The jounin in the room nodded knowing where this was going.

"There are six genin that we must decide where to place. These genin are as follows. Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka, and finally Naruto Uzumaki. The two sensei that get to pick between the six are Kakashi Hatake and Kurenai Yuuhi. However Naruto will be going to Kakashi and Sasuke will be going to Kurenai. I believe that Sasuke will do well with Kurenai seeing as how she excels in genjutsu, which coincides with Sasuke's Sharingan, which hasn't awakened yet. The reason I'm splitting Naruto and Sasuke up is because of their respective skill. Putting them on the same team would make the teams unbalanced. Do we all agree?" the Hokage finished and the jounin nodded knowing the truth in the old man's words. They couldn't have the rookie of the year and his runner up on the same team.

"Hokage-sama, as you well know I have the Sharingan, and once Sasuke's awakens, I will have to take over some of his training, I was thinking that during this time you could send Kurenai and my team on a few joint missions together. It won't take long for me to train the boy to master his eyes. If Kurenai accepts these terms, I'd also like her to train my team in the basics of genjutsu, we can help each other's teams by training them in our respective strengths." Kakashi explained, noticing the look of approval on Kurenai's face. She thought that the idea was perfect. Kakashi wasn't going to deny that he also looked forward to spending a little extra time with the beautiful jounin beside him. He wouldn't be a closet pervert if did deny it, after all!

"Hokage-sama I agree to this. I think that it would work well. As for who I want for the third teammate as Kiba is basically forced on to me since he is the current dead last, in his grades and skill. I want Sakura. I think she could blossom into a very strong genjutsu user, and kunoichi. Not only that but I think she has eyes for Sasuke and I think that they would work well together." Kurenai said her peace and everyone was surprised at the new jounin's eagerness to teach the pink haired fangirl.

Kakashi was elated by this time. He knew that he had gotten the better end of the deal. He could see that the last two had a lot of potential as well.

"I accept the last two genin-to-be, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuuga onto my team hokage0-sama. I think that I can round the two of them out into the perfect team with Naruto." Kakashi said hiding his smile.

"It seems as if we are all in agreement then. I'm calling this meeting to a close with the approval of these two teams. You are all dismissed." Hiruzen said, thanking Kami that it hadn't broke out into an all-out fight between the two jounin.

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" all of the jounin chorused and disappeared in multiple shunshins.

-APL-

Naruto's run to the academy was uneventful. When he got there and walked into the classroom he was greeted by all of his friends and classmates from what would come to be known as The Leaf Nine. He greeted them all and sat down waiting on Iruka sensei to get there. When the chunin arrived it was time to get down to business.

"As you all know this will be most likely your last day at the academy. If you pass the genin exam today you will be known as full-fledged ninja of the hidden leaf village. I am very proud of you all! Now, when I call your name you'll come up here and be given your test." Iruka went through most of the names in the class before he got to Naruto's. Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, and Shino had all passed so far. Along with other nameless students that no one cared about.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka said, and Naruto walked down the row to the front of the class.

"Alright Naruto I want you to perform a transformation. You may transform into anything that you wish." Naruto took this as a chance to screw with his academy teachers one last time and used his very own sexy jutsu to transform into a very scantily clad, very well developed blonde female. Needless to say, all of the males in the room had nosebleeds and Iruka fell backwards comically. He broke the jutsu and turned back into his normal self.

"Ahem, well as inappropriate as that was, you pass this section of the test," Iruka said, while wiping blood from his face.

"Next is substitution. Substitute yourself with this log." The chunin instructed and almost before he finished Naruto had switched places with the log.

"Good, now you are to do a clone jutsu. Make three clones." Naruto used the hand sign for the shadow clone jutsu which shocked Iruka. He created three perfect and solid clones.

"Very good Naruto! Not only are these clones but they are shadow clones! Where did you learn this jutsu and how can you even use it?!" Iruka exclaimed. Naruto replied with

"Well a little birdy taught me the jutsu and I can use it because I have very abnormally high chakra reserves, too much to even be able to do a regular clone." He explained shocking Iruka even more.

"Well nonetheless you pass with flying colors Naruto. Here is your headband." He handed Naruto the leaf headband, which Naruto accepted happily. He went to sit down in his seat as Iruka continued with the list. In the end every one of his friends had passed. Iruka went on to say that he would be giving their team assignments today. He went through random names until he had reached team seven.

"Team Seven will be Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame. Team Eight will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Kiba Inuzuka. And since team nine is still active we will be skipping it and moving on to team Ten, which is Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akimichi." After that it was more random names, but Naruto didn't care! He had gotten his team and he was very happy with who they were. Shino and Hinata were both quiet, but they were skilled for their age. Iruka told them that their sensei would be there to pick them up shortly, and left the room. After a while everyone's sensei had come except for Kakashi.

It was the last straw for Naruto and he got up muttering something about "damned chronically late sensei" and started working on a trap that he knew would annoy his jounin sensei to no end! In the end all he did was open the door a little and put an eraser into the top of the space, the door holding it there.

"Naruto-kun are you sure that's a good idea? Our sensei is a jounin, surely he wouldn't be tricked by something like that." Hinata said, wondering what had taken him so long with it in the first place. In the last few years she had gotten over her stutter, and was even considered bold at times. She still had a huge crush on her blonde teammate, but wasn't sure how he felt about her. She decided long ago that she would wait for the right time to tell him. Shino however was intrigued and wondered what would happen when the jounin did finally open the door. Naruto sat back down and waited. Finally a whole hour later Kakashi arrived.

While outside he saw the eraser and thought to himself ' _does he really think this will trick me? Oh well I'll let him have this one, it's just an eraser after all.'_ He opened the door and the eraser dropped onto his head. It poofed and eraser dust went everywhere. That wasn't all though, Naruto had filled the eraser with glitter that he had gotten from kami knows where. Said glitter now completely coated the jounin's silver hair.

"Hahaha, that's hilarious! I knew you'd let me have this one since you were late Kakashi sensei, but it's even better than I thought! Love the new addition to your hair, by the way!" Naruto was laughing hysterically and could barely get the word out. The other two genin could hardly hold in their amusement as well.

"What do you mean Naruto, that was only an eraser?" Kakashi said, as he took out a small mirror that all jounin ANBU were required to carry. He looked at his hair and his face fell. It now looked like a shimmering mess! It'd take weeks for him to get it all out, he groaned inwardly.

"That was not nice Naruto." He said with a tic mark on his forehead, and the blonde just laughed harder.

"Well now that I have a glittery hairdo, meet me on the roof and we can all introduce ourselves. The jounin said and shunshined up there. The other two genin were laughing a little now. After they all calmed down they went up to the roof. Kakashi was waiting for them. He was furious at Naruto for what he'd done, but he would let it slide this time especially considering what they would go through the next day.

"Good, now that you're all here I want you to introduce yourselves. Tell me your hobbies, likes, dislikes, And dreams for the future. Naruto you can start." The jounin looked at the blond like he was going to kill him.

Naruto paled, and said, "Okay, my hobbies are training, reading, and eating ramen. I like to have fun and spend time with my friends, and to train. I don't like the three minutes you have to wait when making cups of ramen! My dream for the future is to get stronger and become the Hokage, surpassing all of my predecessors, especially the fourth." He looked at Hinata and told her it was her turn.

She blushed and said, "My hobbies are reading and tending the flower garden at my family's compound, I like..." she paused at this, and looked at Naruto blushing. "My dislikes are the caged bird seal and the way the main branch members of my family treat the other members. My dream for the future is to become head of my clan and do away with such horrible customs." Kakashi wasn't surprised at this. He knew of how her family was. Over the last three years, she had become a lot less shy. Even Kakashi was surprised, as he had noticed this the first time they met at Naruto's tenth birthday party. This was in part due to her spending more time with Naruto and her other classmates. He really brought her out of her shell.

"Alright Shino, it's your turn." Kakashi said looking at the insect user.

"My hobbies are caring for my insects and training. I like insects. I don't like people who kill them for no reason. My dream for the future is to become a good clan head for my clan." Shino's description of himself was very short, but everyone had expected this. The bug user was very reclusive, and quiet most of the time.

"Good, you all seem to have different views on the world and very respectable dreams." And he wasn't lying, his first impression of his new team was that he looked forward to teaching them. Naruto asked Kakashi to introduce himself. He told them that his hobby was training, but other than that he didn't really say much. After introductions were out of the way he told them to meet him at training ground seven for the test to see if they would proceed on as genin or be sent back to the academy. He warned them not to eat anything or they would puke.

At this all the new genin were surprised, "I thought we had already become genin Kakashi sensei, what gives?" Naruto asked. The jounin hadn't told him about this!

"Well Naruto you have, but all new genin are put through a test by their jounin sensei to see if they are really ready to be genin. Only about one-third of you will pass." He explained. All three of them had shocked looks on their faces. They all worried about not being able to achieve their goals.

"See you tomorrow." The jounin said and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. After he had left Naruto told his two friends that they should definitely eat in the morning, and then that he had to go. He house-jumped all the way to the forest and then ran the rest of the way home. When he got there Kakashi was nowhere to be found so he decided that he should get some reading in and then go to sleep, so that he could be well rested in the morning. He fell asleep just as it was getting dark outside.

The next morning Naruto woke slowly. He opened his eyes, feeling the effects of sleep fade from his system. He sat up in bed and realized what he had to do today. He jumped out of bed and went to go fix himself some breakfast. He was supposed to meet his team and Kakashi sensei in two hours, so he assumed he had plenty of time to eat. After cooking the normal, eggs and bacon for himself he sat down to eat. He knew that Kakashi wouldn't be visiting this morning, so he ate slowly. When he was finished eating he washed the dishes he had dirtied, and walked to his room to get dressed. He chose to wear the blue shirt today along with his usual cargo pants. As soon as he was done getting dressed he made sure that he had everything he would need for his test today.

He walked out of his house feeling refreshed and ready for whatever Kakashi threw at them. Soon he had arrived at the training ground, but he was a few minutes early. He decided to get a little chakra control work in, so he started walking up the tree nearest to him. His teammates walked into the training field and saw this, they both wondered how he was doing it. He saw them and lost his concentration ' _damn'_ he thought as he fell. Landing on his feet he greeted the two genin who were on his team, "Hey guys did you get good rest? We will probably all need it."

They both told him they had and smiled. They all talked about what they thought the test would be as they waited for their sensei. About thirty minutes later he walked into the training field.

He explained that they had until noon to get a bell from him. He held out two bells showing them to them before clipping them to his belt. Leaving no room for questions he told them to begin. They all scattered and hid themselves in the forest.

' _They've hidden pretty well.'_ he thought knowing where Shino and Hinata were immediately. What surprised him the most was that Naruto had not hidden, instead the blonde had gone for the direct approach. Summoning ten clones he charged Kakashi. They all went at him head on with Naruto staying behind, he started forming hand signs. When he was done the clones jumped back.

"Lightning style: lightning bolt jutsu!" he said putting his hand out. A bolt of lightning struck at Kakashi. The jounin dodged easily and went after the real Naruto. He landed a hit quickly which dispelled the clone.

' _What! A shadow clone, when? I would have seen him substitute'_ he thought as the other Naruto's were back to attacking him. He sparred with them for a while, playing with them and letting the time run out. Little did he know the real Naruto had already made contact with his teammates.

"Alright guys from what I can tell this whole test is like a trick question. Kakashi sensei is trying to pit us against each other. I have no idea why, but we can't let him win!" he said to Hinata and Shino. They nodded, because after thinking it over they had come to the same conclusion.

"Do you have a plan Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked him. Naruto nodded and explained his plan to them. They both agreed and all three of them scattered getting started on setting up their parts. By this time Kakashi was finished dispelling all of the clones.

' _I see, they were all clones from the beginning. It was all a distraction to give him to make contact with his team and form a plan. Good work Naruto, I had little doubt that you'd see through my ruse!'_ he stood in the middle of the field for a second before he heard Naruto yell.

"Now!" and then he saw Shino's bugs and about twenty Narutos coming after him. The clones went to attacking him relentlessly. Hinata also entered into close combat with him. He was hard pressed to fight it all off with his chakra already being drained by the insects, he couldn't afford to be hit by her Gentle Fist style.

One of the clones almost clipped the jounin in the face, but he managed to dodge it. Hinata was going all-out offensive on Kakashi, almost hitting him several times, but the jounin was far too fast for her. While he was fighting the clones and Hinata he felt something cut his waist. He looked around to find the kunai that had cut him but there wasn't one.

"Wind style: great breakthrough!" Naruto yelled and blew the wind style jutsu at him.

To his surprise though it wasn't at full strength, ' _what game are they playing with me'_ he thought and then happened to look down. The bells were both gone! He looked in the direction the wind style had blown, and sure enough there stood Shino. He had both bells in his hand.

The clones all dispelled and Hinata stopped her attack. "Plan worked perfectly guys! Good work" Naruto said coming out of the forest. He had a grin on his face.

"So we got the bells as a team Kakashi sensei. That was what you wanted us to do right?" Naruto said. He grinned in his fox-like manner.

Kakashi laughed and said, "Got it in one Naruto. Not that I'm surprised. Good work you three, you understood the real test and passed with flying colors. Today, Naruto and I will introduce you to what will become your new training regimen. He has been working on this training style since he was nine, and it's been very helpful to him. You both will want to get a set of beginner weights after today. I'd start at 10 pounds for now. They come in many different styles, and I'm sure that you will be able to find some that fit your own styles. Naruto after were done today I want you to take them to Higarashi's weapon shop and help them out."

"Yes Kakashi sensei!" they all three chorused, relieved that they had finally become genin and passed Kakashi's test. Kakashi then told the two that were knew to Naruto's regimen, how it worked and what they would be doing every day from now on. Then he told them all to get started. Naruto began he exercises along with the other two. They both found them difficult but after about two hours everyone was done. Naruto had been done for almost an hour now and was working on climbing trees. Next up was taijutsu, Kakashi set them each up with a clone and told them that they would be working towards hitting the clone.

Naruto had obviously already completed this, so he was tasked with sparring with a fully active clone, who was kicking his ass like usual. After a while Kakashi noticed that Shino only knew the academy style taijutsu. He walked over to him and asked the boy if he felt that the style suited him.

"Well, I only know this one so I'm sure that there is another that would suit me better. I've never really focused on taijutsu though sensei. I usually just let my insects do what they are meant to do and suck my enemies chakra away." Kakashi answered by telling him that he would find a few styles that might be suited for the bug user more, and then explaining why learning taijutsu and being good at it was important even for a long ranged ninja.

"If your opponent is too fast for your kikaichu insects to drain their chakra you may have to keep them busy with taijutsu and even ninjutsu." He let him get back to sparring with his clone after that but focused on thinking about what might be best for him to use as a style. He glanced over to Hinata and saw that he hadn't hit the clone yet but was very impressed with her knowledge of the jyuken. It seemed to him that she needed to find a more fluid way to use the style, he theorized that it would help her connect more often and also be able to dodge out of the way of incoming attacks.

' _I'll have to ask Naruto if his parents had any variations of jyuken when I talk to him about Shino's taijutsu.' he thought._ By now they had been sparring for about an hour, so Kakashi stopped them.

"Now were going to work on your control. I'm assuming you've both completed the leave sticking exercise." The two of them nodded and so he set them to the pebble sticking exercise. He told Naruto spar with his clone on the tree. The blond nodded and got to it. After about thirty minutes Hinata had completed the pebble sticking exercise which hadn't surprised the jounin, she was a Hyuuga after all and they all had amazing control thanks to their jyuken style. He set her to climbing the tree, and she had it completed in half the time that she had completed the last exercise. Soon she was trying to hit his clone from the side of a tree, just like Naruto.

Shino had a lot more problems when it came to his control so Kakashi told him to go back to the leaf exercise, but to go up to ten leaves on each arm instead of the standard five. The genin did so and by the time their two hours were up he had finished with the tenth leaf. Next Kakashi had the two newbies come to him so that he could check their chakra natures. Turned out that Hinata had a water affinity and Shino had an earth affinity. He taught them both how to do a jutsu each and set them to work. Hinata's was the Water style: water bullet, and Shino's was the Earth style: mud wall jutsu. They both got to working on the jutsu. Looking at their progress Kakashi guessed that they'd have them mastered to the point of use in combat by the end of the week.

"Naruto come here." He told the blond who was still sparring. He walked over to Kakashi and the jounin told him that he would be beginning to learn a new aspect of the shinobi arts. This got Naruto excited and he asked which one.

"You can come out now." Kakashi said to the trees. To Naruto's surprise a female ANBU walked out onto the field. Kakashi told her to take off her mask and introduce herself to her newest student. She took of the mask. She had purple hair and a pretty face by normal standards. Her eyes were brown and she was wearing the normal ANBU attire.

"Hello Naruto, my name is Yugao Uzuki and I will be your kenjutsu teacher from now on. I hear that you would ultimately like to dual wield. I'm sorry to say that I am not able to teach you that aspect of kenjutsu as I only have ever used one sword, you will have to learn how to use that second sword of yours on your own, but you have a long way to go before you can even try that. We will be using practice swords until I feel that you are good enough to use a real one" Yugao explained to the blond. He nodded understanding that he could get killed if he made a mistake wielding a sword in real combat. She handed him his wooden sword and told him that he would use that for the time being. He nodded once again, excited as he could be to finally be learning how to use his mother's swords. They walked a ways into the clearing with Naruto following behind the female ANBU. She then began to show him basic kenjutsu kata, going through them slowly so that he could see and repeat them. He would repeat to the best of his ability but sometimes he would screw up and she would hit him in a random spot on his body with the wooden sword and show him again.

"Ouch! What the hell was that for Yugao sensei?" he had said the first time she did it. They trained like that for another two hours. By this time the two new genin were exhausted and Naruto had welts all over his body.

"Alright guys time to call it a day. We will meet here and seven tomorrow morning to train some more and then we will go on our first mission as a team. Go and get some rest." Kakashi told the three and they were all thankful that their first day of hell was over. Little did they know, it was only beginning.

Naruto took them to Higarashi's and help them both pick out a set of beginner weights. Then they all went to their respective homes grumbling about hard ass sensei. When Naruto stepped into his house he felt more exhausted than he had all the times that he and Kakashi had train together. He got a shower and began working on his elemental control until it was time for bed.

-APL-

Meanwhile Kakashi and Yugao were in the Hokage's office. He had asked them both to come and report in on the team.

"What do you two think of them so far?" the Hokage asked them and Kakashi replied,

"Well Naruto a by far the strongest of the three, so as you know his ninjutsu training has been stalled so that he can learn kenjutsu. Shino needs a better taijutsu style and to learn a few ninjutsu to be well rounded and I feel the same about Hinata. The original jyuken is too rigid for her fluid movements and I feel that finding a more fluid version of the style will benefit her greatly. They are both learning well and will most likely be ready for a c rank mission before any of the other teams." The Hokage nodded expecting this and asked Yugao.

"What about you? What do you think of Naruto's progress in kenjutsu so far?" she told him that it would be a long time before he would be able to bring the swords into real combat, but felt that he was learning well. Hiruzen smiled at that, proud of the boy. Dismissing them both, he took a drag from his pipe and looked at some of the missions they would be given.

-APL-

The next day it was finally time for them to start going on missions and Naruto got up excited as ever. It was still early so he thought that he'd go to the training ground and get some control exercises going. When he arrived, the training ground was empty, so he summoned a clone and started to spar with it on the side of a tree. About a half an hour later his teammates arrived sporting their new ankle and wrist weights. Before he had gone home the day before he showed them around Higarashi's weapon shop and they had chosen the weights while they were there. Hinata and Shino saw what he was doing and followed suit, both working on their chakra control until Kakashi walked into the training ground an hour after they had arrived. He set them to their exercises and took his perch in a tree reading his favorite Icha Icha book. After they all finished their workouts Kakashi told them it was time for their first mission together. He led them through the streets of the leaf village until they reached the Hokage tower, once inside the old man's room they were told that they would be doing a d rank mission, which was to catch a cat named Tora. They set out excited to be doing a mission finally.

An hour later they were in position to capture the 'demon cat' as Naruto had appropriately nicknamed him. The cat had clawed and scratched him a lot the first time they tried to catch him.

"Blondie, in position. Ready whenever you are" Naruto said over the radio. His teammates followed suit as did Kakashi. When 'scarecrow' had given them the signal they all jumped out after the cat and finally captured him. Naruto had him in his grip so the cat decided to claw his face to pieces! After everything calmed down the team reported to Kakashi.

"We got him Kakashi sensei, the red ribbon on his ear marks him as the one were looking for." Kakashi replied telling them to meet him at the Hokage tower. When they arrived they walked in and handed the cat to its owner, who was an older obese woman that crushed him to death as soon as she saw him. The genin team definitely saw why the cat kept running away. They were just glad that the mission was finally over! Naruto was mumbling something about a 'damned demon cat' when the Hokage congratulated them on their first completed mission.

"Well done you three. You have time for one more mission today so here it is." He handed Kakashi a scroll. They were to walk the Inuzuka clan's dogs.

-APL-

After that first day, the next two months flew by quickly. They would wake up and train until Kakashi met them. Then they would exercise and go to the Hokage tower. Each day they did around three d ranked missions and by now they were all starting to get tired of them. After missions they would go back to the training ground and work on the areas that they needed to. Kakashi had gotten Shino started learning a new taijutsu style. It was called Kajukenbo, it mixed five different styles of martial arts so that he could be ready for almost any attack that came at him. The style focused mainly on blocking and locking your opponent in place. Throwing your opponent away from you was also a big part of this style. While it was mostly a style that Kakashi felt could help him better defend himself, it had many forms of attack as well.

He had been working on the kata since the second day and now they were all sparring with Kakashi's clones. Naruto had gotten even more proficient at using the roaring dragon style to take out his clones so after he disabled the third, Kakashi would usually send him to do his other training. Hinata was learning a more fluid and flexible version of the jyuken style. It focused on moving around your opponent and dodging his strikes before making some of your own. Naruto's mother had written the scroll on it with permission of a previous Hyuuga clan member. She called it the soft jyuken style. They had all progressed in their chakra control as well, and were able to fight on a tree face for an hour.

Hinata and Shino had both progressed in the jutsu Kakashi had taught them as well. They were able to use them well enough in combat that Kakashi was planning to teach them another for their elements. He had decided that he would, and he taught Shino how to use earth style: earth spears jutsu, and Hinata was learning the water whip jutsu. Naruto hadn't gotten very far in his kenjutsu train though. He was still using the wooden sword and Yugao knocked him around every chance she got. This irked the blond to no end. Every day he would come home with welts and bruises from that thrice damned stick!

Today was the day that Kakashi had planned on asking the Hokage if they could have a C ranked mission. He knew that his genin were more than ready for it and were tired of all of the d ranks they had been doing. So it was in the Hokage's office that we meet our team. "Hokage- sama, I believe that they are all ready for a C rank mission." Kakashi said which made the genins' ears perk up.

"Are you sure Kakashi, do not make this request lightly." The old man said knowing that they were ready as well. The jounin nodded, and the Hokage smiled. "Alright then I think I have just the one for you. You will be escorting a bridge builder back to his country and protecting him until the bridge that he is building is finished. Send Tazuna in." he said getting the genin excited that they would finally be going on a real mission.

Soon an older man who smelled of alcohol and looked as if he were already half lit came into the room.

"This is the protection you're sending with me? Three little squirts and a scarecrow? I hope you know what you're doing Hokage-sama," he said hiccupping every so often. He words made all of the genin angry and Naruto was about to yell at the man before Kakashi interrupted.

"Tazuna –san I assure you that we will be enough to protect you. My genin are very capable and I am a jounin. A high ranking ninja elite. We will not come across anything that we will not be able to handle." The jounin eye smiled at the man and turned to his team. "Alright you three pack for a month away from the village and meet at the gate in an hour." he told them and they all separated to go and pack.

An hour later they were all waiting at the gate for the bridge builder. When he finally arrive they set out for wave country. ' _Were finally getting a good mission! I wonder what will happen?'_ thought all of the genin as they made their way into the forest.

 **A/n- So here is chapter three. It's a day early, I finished early and decided to update. Hope you guys enjoy it. I may be moving a little fast as I'm only three chapters in and I'm already getting into the wave mission, but there is a reason for that. The wave mission will last a few chapters and then I'll get into another arc before I get into the chunin exam arc.**

 **A/n- Hope you all enjoy reading! Reviews help a lot, and I always appreciate them.**


	4. The Beginning of Wave

**A/n- Alright guys, here's the fourth one, hope you enjoy reading.**

 **Oh, and I don't own Naruto.**

 **Chapter 4: The Beginning of Wave**

The group walked with Kakashi leading them and the three genin surrounding Tazuna. Everything outside of the village looked the same. It was trees, trees, and more trees as far as they could see. Every once in a while a small animal would catch their eyes.

"Tazuna-san what is your village like?" Naruto asked the drunk man. The blonde looked at him in curiosity.

"We're just a small fishing village. There aren't that many people and everyone there is like a close family, even if not by blood. It's very peaceful." He explained. They had been walking for little over an hour now and were at least a mile away from the village. The trees were swaying slowly in the wind as they passed two small puddles of water.

' _It hasn't rained in days, why are there puddles of water on the ground?'_ Kakashi was thinking as they passed and Naruto was thinking along the same lines. He tensed up and his two genin teammates saw this.

They both got ready for anything as the two puddles expanded revealing two ninja with claw-like gauntlets on one's right hand and the other's left hand. The gauntlets were connected by a chain. The two ninja jumped at Kakashi first. They both swiped at him with their gauntlets and ripped the jounin to shreds! The genin were surprised and terrified that the jounin let himself be beaten so easily. They couldn't worry about that now, though! They had to get out of this little crisis!

Naruto took point as Hinata and Shino backed him up from the right and left flank, respectively. The two ninja, having killed Kakashi charged the genin. They didn't that that three mere genin would be any trouble at all. Naruto wasted no time with them, he took a kunai from his pound and deflected one of their claw swipes before forming several hand signs.

"Wind style: great breakthrough!" he yelled and send the powerful wind blast at both of them. They were knocked back, but recovered quickly. Hinata and Shino were stunned in fear at first, but then snapped out of it, knowing what they had to do. Shino started to launch kunai at the left one and Hinata went through a few hand signs herself.

"Water style: water whip!" she yelled and used the water from the two puddles to create a whip that she hit the right ninja with, hard. Neither of them had expected genin to be this well versed in the ninja arts. They were so stunned that Hinata's target took her jutsu head on. He was knocked back, and he knew that she had bruised his ribs badly with her whip. Shino's target barely dodged the kunai, but Naruto was waiting for him as he dodged the last one. He kicked the man's right knee from the side and almost broke it on impact. The ninja winced in pain and Naruto took this second opening to punch in the ribs as hard as he could. He felt at least two of them break as he connected. The man went flying and hit a tree trunk knocking him semi-conscious. Naruto followed his last attack up with a punch the face which knocked him out completely.

Hinata's target didn't know what hit him. Hinata swung her water whip several times, after the first hit in the ribs. The man was hit in the left arm, the side and the leg. She released the jutsu and started in on him with her taijutsu. She closed a few of his tenketsu, bruising the places she hit. Naruto waited for his opening and as soon as he saw one he jumped in to kick the man in the sternum. He flew back into a tree as well and was knocked out instantly.

After they were both knocked out Kakashi reappeared, he told the genin that they had done amazingly for their first real fight. "I wanted to see how you three would handle it. I also wanted to know what the two ninja's purpose was, whether it was just ninja attacking ninja, or if they were after the bridge builder. Tazuna we need to have a talk. Right now" he said when they asked why he had faked his death.

"Would you care to explain why two chunin level ninja just tried to kill you?" he asked the bridge builder. The man looked down and tried to think of a way to convince the jounin that he needed their help.

"Their employer doesn't want me to finish the bridge, so he has been sending ninja after me. I'm sorry for lying to you Kakashi-san. My village didn't have enough money to pay for a higher ranking mission or we would have! I swear to you." He said ashamed of himself for lying to them.

"Regardless of what your motives were this mission has just changed. You three, I'm going to tell you how it is and then you can decide whether we continue or not." The three genin nodded.

"These two ninja were ex-chunin from the mist village. They are known as the demon brothers and they will be the weakest ninja we face if we choose to keep going. The next opponent we face will most definitely be a jounin in skill level. This mission has just moved up from a C rank to a B, or possibly even an A ranked mission. Think about this you three. It will be very dangerous if we continue, so I want you to make sure that this is what you want. I will agree to continue only as long as you three are sure you're ready for this." He explained to them that it was up to them.

"We can't leave him unprotected Kakashi sensei, what kind of people would we be. What kind of ninja backs down from something like this! Not me, that's for damned sure!" Naruto told his sensei, the other two agreed wholeheartedly. They wouldn't be quitting or giving up on this mission. That much was clear to the jounin. He smiled "alright then, we will keep going, but you have to tell us everything after we finish off these two Tazuna. If you leave anything out and I find out about it you will never finish that bridge of yours" Kakashi said.

By this time the demon brothers, who were both tied to a tree were waking up. Everyone saw this and Kakashi walked over to them. "Who are you working for and tell me who the other ninja being sent is." Kakashi said to them, but they both refused to tell him anything. He knew this would be the case, but it didn't hurt to try. In the end he cut off their heads and sealed them into a scroll before burning the bodies. He told his genin that they would collect the bounty on those two and split it once they went back home. The three of them were excited to be getting more than just a C rank pay for what they were going to have to go through.

After killing the two demon brothers Kakashi told everyone that it was time to set up camp. He told Tazuna that they would talk after camp was set. The old man nodded and watched as the three genin set up what was to be their campsite. There were two small tents. One for Hinata and the other would be for whoever wasn't on watch, along with Tazuna. The two boys had gone to gather firewood and were back after everything was set up. Naruto started a fire with a simple fire style jutsu and Kakashi started cooking the food that they would be eating. After he got it started he sat down next to Tazuna and the genin followed suit.

"Alright Tazuna-san, tell me everything. I want to know why there are ninja after you and who hired them. I want to know what is so important about this bridge. Who is the one that doesn't want it to be finished? Leave nothing out." Kakashi said to the old man, who nodded and started to speak.

"Well to answer all of your questions in one, Gato is the reason I needed you four in the first place. He is a business tycoon who has basically enslaved the people of the Land of Wave. If you don't do what he tells you, or don't pay him what he thinks you owe him you are dead. He sends men after you to kill you." The bridge builder sighed and looked at them with a small glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"The bridge that I'm building will change all of that though. We will be able to get all of our own provisions by trading with other villages. It will bring us money and we won't have to live as a poor fishing village any longer. The bridge is our only hope Kakashi –san. If I'm not able to finish it, then my people will continue to live in poverty! Gato hired those two ninja, I'm sure of it. He has others too. I don't know who exactly, though. I'm sorry that I lied to your village, but the only way I will ever be able to finish the bridge is if I have ninja protecting me while I do. My village was too poor to afford anything higher than a C rank mission though. I hope you guys will forgive us for the lack of honesty." The man finished looking down, as if he truly was remorseful about lying to them. He hoped that they would understand and help him. He didn't hear any of them speak for a while.

To his surprise it was Naruto who spoke up first. "We have to help them Kakashi-sensei. They had no other way of doing things than this, I know were over our heads, but I'm sure that we can handle it! Right guys?" he said looking at his other two teammates. They both agreed wholeheartedly. They wouldn't give up on this mission no matter what.

Kakashi was proud of his three genin, now he only hope that they would be able to face what was to come. "Alright, alright. I feel the same as you. We will finish this mission to the end, but Tazuna-san I want it understood that once your village can get back on its feet you will compensate us for this."

Tazuna nodded and that was all that was said on the matter. Kakashi told everyone to get some sleep, and that they'd continue tomorrow morning at first light. They all went into their tents and left Kakashi to watch over the camp for the night.

The next morning the sun shone through the trees as the genin woke up. They slowly exited their tents and found Kakashi still up, and Tazuna already up with him. Kakashi told the three of them to get everything packed up. "We will head out as soon as you three finish." They nodded and started sealing the tents away into scrolls. Soon everything was sealed and they were ready to go.

They started walking in the direction of wave in the same formation that the left the village in, with Hinata on one side and Shino on the other. Naruto took point. Nothing really special happened for a while. They talked about Tazuna's village, and Naruto told him that they wouldn't let them go through that anymore. Tazuna had started to take a liking to the blonde. It seemed to him that the boy was honorable, and that was a rare quality to the man.

Soon they arrived at a boating dock and found a man that would take them into the village. The sun was starting to go down by now, and it was very foggy along the river. They got onto the man's boat and were rowing towards the village. It didn't take them long to land on the other side, when they got out of the boat they bid the man that had taken them goodbye and were on their way.

They were walking through the forest when Naruto heard something. He launched a kunai into the bushes, and when they found what he had been aiming for they were surprised. It was a white rabbit.

"Naruto! You almost hit that rabbit, why'd you do that?" Hinata asked him, but he was busy worrying about what the rabbit symbolized. ' _That's weird, these rabbits are only white during the winter."_ were the thoughts going through his mind when Kakashi suddenly yelled.

"Get down!" not a moment too soon, Naruto ducked and felt the whoosh of a blade being thrown over his head. It passed over him and stuck into a tree about ten feet from him. The blade was huge! Whoever wielded it wasn't someone to be messed with. He was thinking, suddenly very afraid as he saw someone land on the blade.

This man had a headband from the mist village that was tied so that the metal was on the left side of his head. His face and neck were bandaged so that you couldn't see his mouth. He wore a black sleeveless shirt and black ninja pants. He also had bluish grey armbands on his forearms and he wore the same on his shins.

"Give me the bridge builder now and you don't have to die, little genin." He spoke in a menacing voice that made the three genin's neck hair stand on end. Kakashi told them to get into manji formation, which was where they surrounded the bridge builder. Their task was to protect him no matter what the cost. They got into formation and the masked man jumped from the tree, grabbing his sword on the way down.

"So who is it that I get to kill today?" he asked looking at Kakashi. "Ah, I know who you are! You're Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan eye. You're in all of the bingo books nowadays. The man who has copied over a thousand jutsu. What are you doing with these runts?" he looked at the genin.

"They are my team, and I will not let anything happen to them. You're Zabuza Momochi right? The Demon of the Hidden Mist. I'm your opponent." Kakashi said moving his headband to uncover his Sharingan eye. He launched at Zabuza throwing shuriken and slashing with the kunai in his hand. Zabuza dodged the shuriken, but was too late for the kunai. The man exploded in a shower of water surprising the silver haired jounin that attacked him. ' _Water clone, huh'_ he thought and turned around to see his target slashing down at him with his oversized sword.

Kakashi exploded into water too, surprising the jounin of the mist.

' _He copied it that fast?'_ he thought and jumped back. Kakashi appeared in front of him close to the river. Zabuza launched ten shuriken at the copy ninja, and Kakashi had no choice but to retreat into the water.

Zabuza smirked, ' _wrong move Kakashi'_ he thought and jumped onto the water. Kakashi resurfaced in front of him, but he was already doing hand signs

"Water style: Water Prison Jutsu!" he said and stretched his arm out in front of him, creating a spherical prison of water around Kakashi trapping him there. Zabuza created two water clones to take care of the three genin.

Naruto, Hinata, and Shino all watched the fight unfold in awe. They had never seen two people that skilled fight before. They knew that both wanted to kill the other, and it scared them to think that that was what the life of the shinobi was about. When Kakashi got trapped in the water prison they panicked, not knowing what to do. Kakashi knew that was what was going through their minds and yelled

"Run! Take Tazuna and get out of here! You can't take him by yourselves!" this snapped Naruto out of his stupor and he decided that he wasn't going to run.

"Hinata, Shino, I have a plan." he summoned fifty clones to keep Zabuza's clones busy while he explained it to them.

"Alright we will do it!" they said after he told them.

Naruto created ten more clones and ran at Zabuza's clones, with a kunai in hand. He threw it at the left clone and that was the one that the clones went after. He was doing hand signs as he ran at the other clone. The other two were doing hand signs as well.

"Earth style: Mud Wall Jutsu!" Shino said and a wall of earth was brought up behind both clones.

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto yelled and shot the powerful blast of wind at the right clone. The clone was blown back into the wall and that was when Hinata yelled.

"Water style: Water Bullet!" she shot a small water bullet as hard as she could at the clone. It was dazed so it didn't dodge and when the bullet hit, it went through both the clone and the mud wall. The clone dispelled into water and Naruto took this chance. He started doing hand signs.

"Wind style: Wind Blade!" he yelled and slashed through his clones and the last clone of Zabuza. After that he started doing more hand signs along with Hinata. They were standing right in front of the mud wall when Shino brought it down.

"Wind style: Air bullet!"

"Water style: Water bullet!" Hinata and Naruto said at the same time.

They shot two bullets of wind and air at Zabuza ' _shit I'm going to have to let him go if I don't want to be hit by that!'_ Zabuza thought and let go of the water prison. He jumped out of the way of their attack, but what they wanted had happened. They had freed Kakashi.

The genin backed off after that, knowing there was little they could do about the jounin that they faced. The two seasoned ninja stood atop the water staring at each other. It seemed as if Kakashi was copying every move that Zabuza made! When he would run to the left, Kakashi would do the same. Zabuza started weaving hand signs and Kakashi started weaving the same sign. Soon they were both done.

"Water style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" they both said at the same time. Two dragons rose up from the water and collided showering them both in water. Kakashi kept copying everything Zabuza did.

"Stop copying my moves Kakashi! You won't be able to beat me with cheap tricks! Ill crush you!" Zabuza and Kakashi both yelled and started doing hand signs. Kakashi started doing the same signs, but when it came time for their jutsu to meet only one voice could be heard.

"Water style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" Kakashi said and suddenly the water In front of him rose up and made a whirling vortex in front of Kakashi before it shot out at Zabuza. ' _I was just about to make a vortex, but he made one first!'_ Zabuza thought asit hit him hard and he was tossed and turned everywhere before finally smacking against a tree. Kakashi threw several kunai at him, hitting him in both arms and legs. The mist jounin winced in pain with every hit.

"You're finished Zabuza." Kakashi told him from a branch above him in the tree that he was leaning on. Zabuza coughed up water that was mixed with blood

"Can you see the future Kakashi? You copied everything perfectly! And that last attack, I was just about to do the same thing." Zabuza said weakly.

"Yes I can, and this will be your last battle, ever!" Kakashi replied with a kunai in hand.

As Kakashi was about to jump down and kill the jounin from the mist two senbon flew out from the trees and hit him in the neck, killing him. Kakashi looked to where the needles had come from and saw a hunter ninja.

"You were right Kakashi-san, this was his last battle. Thank you for weakening him for me. I have been hunting Zabuza for many years now." The hunter ninja said and shunshined to the dead body of Zabuza. Kakashi jumped down and checked the man's vitals. There wasn't a pulse, so he relaxed a little.

"I will take this body and deal with it. Thank you again Kakashi-san" the Hunter Nin stated before picking up the body and transporting it who knows where. Naruto and the others were watching this. They were relieved to finally be finished with the battle and with Zabuza.

"You guys can stay at my house while I work on this bridge, it's the least I can do to repay all you've done. Come on it's this way" Tazuna told them.

"Good work you three." Kakashi said, and after he finished the silver haired jounin passed out onto the ground.

"Kakashi sensei!" the three genin exclaimed, worried about their teacher.

"It's just a case of mild chakra exhaustion from using his sharingan too much." Naruto told them after looking the jounin over for a moment, he had seen this before during training. His teammates relaxed visibly at that. Naruto summoned two shadow clones and they slowly made their way to Tazuna's home.

Tazuna's home was average in size. It had two stories, and there were three bedrooms upstairs along with the two that were downstairs. The living room was of a decent size and that is what they walked into when they got there. Tsunami, who was Tazuna's daughter greeted them

"Dad! You're home, I'm glad you made it back safe." She saw Kakashi and told Naruto to bring him inside and put him upstairs in one of the rooms. Naruto did this and then they all ate dinner. It was a good meal, Tsunami cooked the genin team fish and bread for dinner. After dinner they all went to bed in one of the rooms upstairs.

-APL-

At an undisclosed location underground.

"Why does he always push himself like this? It's going to be at least three weeks before Zabuza-sama recovers from the temporary death-state that I had to put him in." the Hunter Nin was talking to herself, she didn't know that her master was listening to her.

"Haku why do you have to be so cruel, that hurt like hell you know!" Zabuza said as he rip the two senbon that were still sticking out of his neck free.

"Be careful Zabuza-sama, you could really hurt yourself ripping them out like that, and besides the neck is the easiest place that I could hit you to get the desired results. Also, are you even for a second saying that if I had marred that precious body of yours that you would be less pissed than you are now?" she looked at him asking.

"Still, you could have been a little easier." He replied, joking with the girl that he had raised as his tool since she was a child.

"Normally it would take around three weeks for someone to recover from something like this, but with your track record, you'll probably be as good as new in a week and a half." She replied, ignoring his comment.

Zabuza was furious that he'd been beaten by that copycat of a ninja, 'I'll get my revenge for this defeat for sure.' He thought as he laid back down to rest a little more. He watched as Gato came into the room and started to berate him about losing to Kakashi, getting closer to the bandaged man with every passing sentence. Haku surprised him by breaking the man's wrist and telling him that if he ever got that close to Zabuza again that she would kill him.

He was proud of his student, oh so proud.

-APL-

The next morning Naruto woke up and walked downstairs to find that everyone was already there waiting for him, Kakashi was bandaged and had to use crutches to walk. Naruto's teammates were sitting at the table. Kakashi looked over to see Naruto come down the stairs.

"Ah Naruto you're awake. Good, now I can tell you all this and don't have to repeat myself." The genin all wondered what he wanted to tell them. Naruto sat down and tsunami put a plate of breakfast in front of him.

"Alright you three, I have my suspicions that Zabuza is still alive. That means were not out of the woods yet, and I'm going to be training you all into the ground for the next week. The next time we fight him you will be better prepared for it. He will probably bring back up with him this time so be forewarned." Kakashi stated without letting them process completely that Zabuza was still alive.

"What?! I thought that the hunter ninja killed him sensei." Naruto said and the others nodded not wanting to believe that he wasn't dead.

Kakashi sighed, knowing what they were thinking. "Think about the weapons that that hunter ninja used. What were they Hinata?"

"They were senbon Kakashi sensei, or throwing needles." She replied starting to put it together.

"Right, senbon are small and precise, and able to hit vital spots easily. If that hunter ninja wanted to suspend Zabuza in a deathlike state it would be child's play for him. What do you know of hunter ninja in general Shino?" Kakashi asked the bug user. By this time the three genin had all put together the pieces of information that they were given.

"I know that hunter ninja are sent after rogue ninja to kill them and destroy their bodies so that the ninja's village secrets aren't able to be taken from it. They are supposed to destroy the body on sight, but the hunter that we met didn't. He took Zabuza's body somewhere else." Shino said knowing that their sensei was right.

"So that hunter ninja had to be working with Zabuza then?" Naruto put in, finishing all of the thoughts going around in the room.

"Correct Naruto, and I'd say we have about a week and a half before Zabuza is ready to fight again. I will be using this time to train you three to be able to do more against him. Anything you learn will help you than nothing. I may be injured right now but that doesn't mean that I can't instruct! We will get started after breakfast." Kakashi finished and resumed eating so that his genin could process all the information.

After breakfast Kakashi told them to follow him. He led them all to the riverbank. "Alright you three. None of you have learned this skill yet, so I will be teaching it to you today. It's a skill known as water walking. It will help you build your reserves and to better control them. This will make jutsu cost you less chakra and help in controlling your jutsu more."

"But how are we supposed to walk on water Kakashi sensei? That's impossible!" Naruto said, voicing all three genins' thoughts aloud.

"If you remember correctly, Zabuza was standing on the water while he held me in that water prison of his. You do it like this." Kakashi said and slowly walked out onto the surface of the water. The three of them did remember that, 'oh yeah' they all thought stupidly.

"This exercise is a lot like tree walking. Yu concentrate chakra to your feet to hold you up onto the water. The difference is that you have to constantly change the amount of chakra at your feet. This will cause you to burn your reserves quickly and therefore increase them. Get started on this, and if you can finish the exercise in less than five day I will teach each of you a new jutsu." Kakashi instructed giving them incentive to work harder.

Naruto, Shino, and Hinata all slowly walked into the water, and concentrated chakra to their feet as they did. All three of them stuck to the surface for a small amount of time but sank almost immediately. Hinata stayed up the longest, with Shino being second and Naruto being third because of his immense reserves. Kakashi walked to the nearest tree and sat down, pulling his orange book out, he started reading his smut.

After three hours of working at it, the only one any closer to finishing was Hinata. She could stay on the surface for a little over five minutes now. The other two however weren't even near that good, they could both only stay up for around two or three minutes. Kakashi called them over for a break. "You guys can take a break and then I want you to all to do your routine exercises and then get back at it. He told them, knowing that they were starting to tire. Naruto wasn't starting to tire at all, but that was because of the kyuubi.

Soon they were starting their exercises. Naruto started running up and down the riverside. Shino started on his push-ups and Hinata started on her punches and kicks. It wasn't long before they finished their respective exercises and went to the next set that they were supposed to do.

About an hour later they were all back at water walking. This continued until it started to get dark and Kakashi told them to call it a night. They all went back to Tazuna's and sat at the table for dinner. Inari, who was Tazuna's grandson was there, and he kept glaring at all of them. Naruto wondered what his problem was.

After dinner they all went to bed. They were dead tired after that day of training.

-APL-

The next day Naruto and his teammates got up before dawn so that they could get to training. Kakashi was still sleeping when they left Tazuna's house. They had been sure to take better clothes for swimming. They all brought shorts and Hinata brought a tank top as well. As they got to the riverside they were getting more and more ready to get started. Hinata was extremely nervous about showing her teammates what she looked like without a jacket. She blushed and wondered what they would think. She was mostly worried about Naruto though.

They did their morning routines and started in on water walking. Hinata slowly took her jacket off revealing the tank top underneath and Naruto and Shino both blushed, looking at her young developing body. Shino would never admit this to anyone if asked of course. Naruto sputtered nervously that they should get started. Hinata was pleased at the reaction she got from him, and hoped that it meant that he thought she was pretty.

Hinata had gotten the farthest the day before of course, she could stay up for almost twenty minutes before falling in. Naruto had pushed himself to ten minutes and Shino could stay up for twelve.

They got onto the water and Naruto said blushing, "W-what if we try g-going farther o-out? It will be a lot harder, but I t-think it will help us master this faster, since we'll be g-getting used to the rougher current further out!" the other two shrugged and started walking with him as far as they could. They were both surprised at this new timid and shy Naruto, they weren't used to it. They shrugged it off and before long all three young genin fell in due to the unstable current farther out, just as Naruto had thought they would. They got out of the water and tried again. They would walk slowly out until they fell in, and each time they would get a little farther across the wide river.

They continued this for hours, and soon the sun was high in the sky. By this time Naruto had finally gotten over his nervousness around Hinata, and talked normally again, without stuttering. He wondered why he had reacted that way, but shrugged it off for now, thinking that he would deal with his reaction to her later. This was when Kakashi decided to join them. By this time they had all gotten a fourth of the way across. It surprised Kakashi how they were going about this training, but he was impressed at how far they had come.

"Come on in guys it's time for a break and then I want to see how long you can each stay standing still." They walked back to the riverside, becoming more confident as they got closer to the bank of the river. After a ten minute break they all stood on the water for as long as they could. The two boys were even at twenty minutes and Hinata could now stay on for thirty five without falling in.

"Alright you three, good work so far. I have something for you all. It's the next set of weights for each of you. I bought them before the mission started. This will make water walking harder but you'll all be stronger for it. Hinata you're at twenty pound, and Shino you're at forty. Here you go" he handed Hinata and Shino their weights to put on. They both put them on and groaned realizing how much harder this would be.

"Naruto you're at 60 now. I want you all to do your morning routines again once to get used to the new weight. These new sets have a seal on them to release them. Touch them while channeling chakra into your hands and they will fall off. Here you go Naruto." He handed Naruto his weights and the blonde put them on without question. His two teammates were beyond surprised. 'I can barely move at where I'm at! How does he do it?' were the thoughts running through Naruto's teammate's minds. After they were all outfitted with their weights they each started on their routines for the second time that day.

This run through of exercises was a lot slower going than the one before. They all struggled immensely to get through each exercise. They knew it would be a while before they were used to this added weight. Two hours later they were done and Kakashi told them it was time for a late lunch. It was around two o'clock now, so they headed back to Tazuna's house. They ate their lunch happily, they all felt like they were starving!

After lunch they went back out to the riverside, but not before Kakashi told Naruto to send a squad of five shadow clones to go and watch over the bridge builder. Naruto did so and they were off. They had to basically restart the water walking exercise because of the new weights. They each started walking across the water, and when one of them would fall in they would all start back at the riverbank.

By nightfall they had started to get used to the weights that they were given. It was time to go back to Tazuna's and have dinner, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

-APL-

They next two days went by in much the same way. The genin team would wake up and go out to the river at dawn and train until they had to take a break, and then they would break for lunch and start back after resting a little while.

They all progressed very quickly with the help of support from each other, when one would figure something out about the exercise they would clue the other two in. they were all up to almost an hour of standing still on the water, but it wasn't enough for them. They knew that if they were going to be able to use the skill in combat that they would need to be able to fight on the water's surface for at least two hours.

They had completely acclimated to their added weights by the end of the two days and were now resting on the river bank. Hinata had gotten a little bolder after that first day and now she wore her tank top without being so nervous around the boys. Speaking of those two they both noticed that their female teammate was starting to develop in ways that they wouldn't have seen if she had kept wearing her jacket.

Naruto in particular still felt himself blushing countless times as he watched as Hinata would get out of the water after falling in. Her wet tank top clung to her skin tightly, leaving little to the imagination. While the dark haired girls assets were nowhere near a certain blonde medical kunoichi's, they were definitely farther along in development that all of her other classmates.

"Why does this have to be so hard, guys?" Naruto was complaining because their progress hadn't gotten much better from the day before.

"We will get it, I know we will." Hinata said, she still stuttered during some conversations with her blonde crush, but it was almost nonexistent now.

"We just have to keep working at it." Shino agreed, he had opened up to them more, even telling them about his clan a little. Naruto thought it was cool that a whole clan specialized in housing insect that they could use in battle inside themselves. Hinata thought it was just a little creepy, but didn't tell her teammate so, because she hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings.

They still had a few hours of daylight left, so they all stood up and started back at it. Instead of standing still, they were now walking around on the water. Shino had come up with idea, he had said that if they were going to have to fight on the water they should be able to walk around.

-APL-

Three hours later night had fallen and they walked into Tazuna's house completely exhausted. They had gotten further than they had ever gotten before tonight. They were able to walk around on any part of the rivers surface for an hour and a half before falling in. they decided before the three of them left the riverbed that the next day they would start sparring on the water.

Dinner was already ready for them and everyone was already waiting for them at the table.

"We're finally ready for the next step of this training Kakashi sensei. We made it an hour and a half so were going to start sparing tomorrow." Naruto said excitedly.

"Why do you even try? You're just going to end up dead!" the little boy Inari suddenly yelled at the three of them.

"Why do you think that? We're going to beat Gato and help your village kid!" Naruto replied getting more annoyed at the boy with every passing minute.

"No you won't! You're all just going to die! Like he did!" Inari yelled back.

"Look I don't know who you're talking about kid, but I'm not going to die. Stop acting like such a victim! You have no idea what real pain is like. You don't know what it's like to live in a village where you're despised for something you can't even control! Something that happened the day that you were born that you didn't have any say in! So why don't you shut up and stop acting like your pain is the only thing that matters! Stop acting like a little wimp!" Naruto practically screamed the last part at the boy and stormed off telling the others at the table that he was going to go train.

"Kakashi sensei what was Naruto talking about? What happened when he was born? I've noticed how the villagers look at him." Hinata asked, forgetting about what the boy had said almost entirely, she had been wondering what made the villagers look at Naruto like they did for longer than any of her classmates.

"Please tell us Kakashi sensei" Shino said wondering the same things that Hinata was.

-APL-

"You know they are going to want to know, and that I think you should be the one to tell them Naruto" Kakashi had made a clone to talk to his student, without the others noticing. They were walking through the forest, Naruto didn't want to train with walking on water tonight. He had something else in mind that he didn't want any of the others to know about.

"I know Kakashi sensei, but I don't think I can tell them right now. I know it's not your place, but if they ask just tell them everything. I just hope they don't look at me differently." Naruto said looking down.

"They won't Naruto, if I know anything about those two on your team it that they won't see you as the demon. They will see what your father wanted everyone to, that you're a hero. I'm going to dispel now, be careful out here tonight." Kakashi's clone replied putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder before dispelling.

"I won't" Naruto replied to no one before summoning five hundred clones.

This was going to be a long night.

-APL-

Kakashi received his clone's memories, getting the okay from Naruto to tell the two genin in front of him. As he began to tell the story of how the Kyuubi was really dealt with Inari realized just how wrong he was. That blonde boy dealt with hate and prejudice every day for something that he couldn't do anything about, and yet every day that he'd been at his grandpa's house he had been happy and cheerful. Acting like he had no other cares in the world except for helping Inari's village get through the strife it was going through with Gato.

'I need to apologize to Naruto' he thought as the blondes teammates listened raptly to the story that Kakashi was telling.

They both felt sorry for Naruto, they knew that they could never do anything to make it better for their blond teammate. To think that he had held the beast all this time only learning about it recently. The villagers had it all wrong in their opinions. Naruto wasn't the demon, he was keeping the demon at bay. He was saving the villagers ungrateful asses every day, and none of them cared.

"What can we do to make what he goes though better Kakashi sensei?" Hinata asked although she had a feeling that she knew what the silver haired jounin would say.

"Don't treat him any different than you do now. Just be his friends you two. That's all he really wants, is friends to count on that like him for who he is." Kakashi replied confirming Hinata's suspicions.

The two of them decided then and there that they would show Naruto that he had friends, and that they both cared deeply for him.

-APL-

We find Naruto back in the forest panting in fatigue as he continued to fight his clones. He wasn't holding back and neither were they. He dodged a punch from one of them, and a kick from another. He was starting to get tired finally, and he knew it. Deep cuts and bruises littered the blonde's body as he finally passed out on the forest floor from exhaustion.

'I just hope they don't see me any different.' were the last thoughts that passed through the blonde's mind.


	5. Training, and Precious People!

**A/n- hey guys sorry about the really late chapter update, been really busy. I'm changing my updates to every two weeks, so not this Monday but next. Hope you all enjoy!**

The sun peaked its way through the trees, shining right onto the bruised and bloodied face of Naruto Uzumaki. He groggily woke up, opening his eyelids slowly. 'Where am I?' he thought, before remembering what had transpired the night before.

"Oh yeah, guess I better get back to Tazuna's house." He said aloud. He looked around at the destroyed forest around him, he and his clones hadn't gone at it easily. They had been throwing jutsu around like it was nothing. Bombarding Naruto with everything they could, to get the upper hand against their blonde creator.

Naruto sat up slowly, and suddenly he noticed someone humming. It was a sweet sound like leaves rustling in the wind, or the soft sound of light melodic music. The blonde looked around wondering where it was coming from. He saw that something, or someone was moving off in the forest a ways from him, so he stood up and followed the sound of the humming.

Soon he came upon a girl with long black hair. She wore her long hair loosely, and wore a pink, sleeveless kimono, with pale red edges and decorated with small plum-colored swirls that went to her ankles. Around her waist was a simple white obi tied in a bow, and she wore a pair of light brown sandals with dark straps. She also wore a dark-colored choker around her neck. She was beautiful, in the simplest use of the word. Naruto looked at her for a while, feeling that nothing else could describe the girl that was in front of him.

"Angel," he breathed out accidentally alerting her to his presence.

"Who's there?" she asked not knowing where he was.

He walked out from behind the trees and looked at her closer. She was petite, and looked to be a very shy girl, her posture giving that away.

"I'm Naruto, I spent the night in the forest training last night, and heard you humming. It was a beautiful sound, what's your name" he asked.

"I'm Haku, thank you for the compliment Naruto-san, why were you out here training? Do you have someone you need to protect?" she replied, looking back at the blonde. 'He's cute, too bad he's my enemy. Besides if I had to pick between my four enemies I wouldn't pick him.' she thought thinking about a certain someone that had been on the team in the forest when she saved Zabuza.

"Yeah were here to protect the bridge builder, while he builds his bridge. I have to get stronger so that I can beat Zabuza and protect my friends too! So what are you doing out here so early in the morning?" he asked, trying to keep the conversation going. He was curious about this girl.

"It's good that you have people that you want to protect, from my experience true strength comes from the need to protect your friends and your precious people. I'm out here this early because I'm collecting medicinal herbs to help me heal my precious person, he was injured recently and needs all the help I can give him. Do you have precious people Naruto?" she asked, knowing that he would tell her that his teammates were precious to him. She thought of Zabuza and their mission. She hoped that they would get out of this next battle okay.

"Yeah my two teammates are very precious to me, and my sensei. The Hokage helps me out whenever he can and I try to help him. Iruka sensei helped me too, and then there are all of my friends that I just graduated with. I have lots of precious people." He said with a small, and true smile on his face. He thought of all of his friends, the Hokage, and his teachers. He didn't know what he would do if he ever lost any one of them.

"That's good Naruto, I believe you will become truly strong. You have it in you to become a great ninja." She told him. She hoped that she wouldn't give herself away, but she felt that he was easy to talk to. The sentence slipped out before she knew what she was saying.

"Thank you Haku, that means a lot. Well I had better get back to Tazuna's house, maybe we will meet again sometime." He said, he suspected that she wasn't telling him the whole truth, but he wouldn't press anything for now.

"Good luck Naruto, who knows, I might be here tomorrow morning." She said, hinting that she would like to talk with him again.

He smiled and told her that he would see her the next morning. He hinted the he might bring one of his friends. She smiled back at the blonde and hoped that he would introduce her to the other boy on his team. Naruto ran off hoping that he hadn't worried his team too much.

-APL-

When Naruto arrived at Tazuna's house Tsunami was already cooking breakfast and everyone in the house was slowly waking up. Naruto joined Tsunami, helping her cook the eggs as she made the sausage.

"Naruto, you're back are you okay? I'm sorry about my son, he can be very rude sometimes." Tsunami said when she noticed him walking into the kitchen.

"It's alright Tsunami-san, I understand how he is feeling. He can't let the death of his father rule his life though. I know it's still fresh in his young mind, but he needs to get over it and move on so that he can become strong. Where is he? After breakfast I'm going to have a talk with him." Naruto replied showing her that he was very mature for his age, she was very surprised at his response. She told him that Inari would be joining them for breakfast, so he could talk to him when they finished.

Hinata woke up first, out of the Konoha ninja. She got dressed and walked downstairs to see Naruto and tsunami cooking in the kitchen. "Naruto-kun! Are you ok, your all bruised up." She exclaimed walking into the kitchen and uncharacteristically hugging him hard. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I wasn't there when I could have been and it's my fault that you were alone, all that time." She said crying into his shirt openly.

Naruto patted her head gently, his heart was racing for some reason. "It's okay Hinata-chan, you didn't know, it's not your fault at all. It's not anybody's fault. It just is, I got over how the villagers treat me long time ago, and I don't want any special treatment from you or anyone in our team. That includes you, Kakashi sensei, Shino." He said calling the two of them out.

"I know you don't Naruto, your team just wants you to know that we care for you." Kakashi said walking around the corner.

"We're a team Naruto, and when one of us is hurting all of us do. We are here for you." Shino said, following their sensei.

Naruto now had tears of his own in his eyes, "Thank you guys that means more to me than anything you could ever give me. He smiled at his two teammates and his sensei. Hinata now realized that Naruto still had his arms around her and she promptly blushed like a mad woman, turning bright red. She fainted in his arms for the first time in years.

"Ohh no! Is she okay Kakashi sensei? What's wrong with her?" Naruto exclaimed worried about Hinata. He had no idea that she had fainted because she was in his arms. Just as oblivious as ever.

"Yes Naruto she's fine, just carry her over to the couch and lay her down, she will be okay in a few minutes." Naruto did as Kakashi told him, and lay her on the couch. Soon she slowly woke up with her cheeks as red as a tomato, she hadn't fainted in years, what was wrong with her?

'I can't believe I was so close to Naruto-kun' she thought, putting her hands up to her warm cheeks.

"Alright everyone, calm down and come to the table, breakfast is ready." Tsunami said, having finished for Naruto after his team had come in.

Everyone slowly filed into the dining room and sat at the table. Naruto grinned before summoning some clones to carry in the food. They all started to eat. Inari was silent throughout all of breakfast, he was still thinking about what had transpired the night before. He couldn't believe the blonde in front of him had been through so much hardship and could still wear that goofy smile of his.

After they were finished with breakfast Naruto asked Inari to take a walk with him. He left behind a clone to help Tsunami with the dishes and cleaning up. He and Inari walked out to the back yard of the small house that they were staying in.

"Why?" Inari looked at Naruto and asked. He wanted to know why Naruto was helping them. How he could go through all of those things as a kid, and still see good in the world.

"Because I made a promise to your grandfather Inari. I told him that I would protect him, and that I would help him finish his bridge. I never break a promise, and I never go back on my word! It's my way of the ninja, the path that I follow." Naruto looked at the boy with a seriousness in his eyes that Inari had never seen.

"Inari, do you want to become stronger so that you can protect your village? Just like your dad?" Naruto asked after thinking it over a minute. If this boy wanted to help protect his village then he would help him with his goal.

Inari looked at Naruto and thought about what he had said. "Yeah Naruto, I want to protect my family and my village!" he replied with a kind of fire in his eyes.

"Good, then your training starts now. We will help you until we leave, we can give you everything you need to get started." Naruto smiled at the boy. He knew that he could help Inari, who was so much like he was when he was younger.

"Come on, I'll let my team know the plan, and we can get started on training you in the way of the ninja. We may not be able to cover much, but when I get home I can send you scrolls and books that will help you learn more."

Inari hugged Naruto, thanking him for what he was doing. They walked inside and Naruto found Kakashi and his two teammates sitting on the couch waiting for them. Naruto told Kakashi what he wanted to do, and Kakashi thought it was a good idea, he didn't see a problem teaching the boy the basics of the ninja arts.

"Well we've got a lot of work to do Inari, so why don't we all get started." Kakashi said and led his team out to the river bank, the three genin all got started on water walking, while Kakashi started teaching Inari how to unlock his chakra, and how to put it to use.

"Alright Inari, I want you to visualize your body, it's full of flowing energy that you can tap into. I want you to try and focus your energy. This energy is called chakra, and it's part of the basis of every technique that we ninja use."

The boy focused and tried to tap into his chakra. It took him hours to finally focus enough the gather enough chakra to do anything with. While he was working on this the three genin were sparring on the water. He watched them when he was taking a break, and was astounded at how well they moved. 'I hope I can be that strong one day.' He thought in admiration. He got back to work with a new vigor.

Kakashi watch the boy try his best to focus enough chakra to utilize. 'He won't ever be able to do anything beyond chunin class, but maybe this is just what the Village Hidden in the Waves needs. A ninja to start training other ninja.'

"Alright Inari, I want you to use this hand sign and concentrate on transforming your body into Naruto." Kakashi showed him the hand sign for the transformation jutsu. He explained that he would have to call on a lot of his chakra to complete a transformation. Inari tried several times, the first few times, he changed his hair color blonde, it was a start but he was nowhere near ready to start working on chakra control.

It took him three hours but he was finally able to change his clothes into Naruto's and his hair to blonde. Kakashi told him that once he was able to transform completely into Naruto that he would teach him a skill to start learning to actually control the chakra within him. While he practiced, the silver haired jounin would teach him things about the ninja world. These ranged from politics, to types of missions, and even about the five cage.

While Inari practiced the three genin of team seven were finally starting to get tired. They had been sparring for a little over two hours this time and were ready for a break. Naruto asked Kakashi if they could all eat lunch. He had decided against talking to them about his encounter with Haku, since he would be introducing Shino to her the next morning. Kakashi told them that he had brought lunch with him this morning so they could take a break.

Inari was exhausted by this time. He had worked nonstop, and really needed to refuel.

After they had eaten the rest of the day had passed just as quickly as the first part. By nightfall they all drug themselves into the kitchen of Tazuna's home, and sat at the table. They all felt practically starved. They had all come a long way in the last four days.

Only a week left till Kakashi felt that Zabuza would be healed.

-APL-

The next morning came quickly for our four trainees. Naruto woke up before anyone else and silently walked up next to Shino and woke him up, so that they could go meet haku. Naruto was excited for his teammate to meet the girl. He felt that they would get along really well. They quietly walked out of the house and headed toward the forest where Naruto and Haku had first met.

It wasn't even dawn yet so, it was still a little dark. As they walked Shino questioned him about where they were going and why.

"You'll see Shino, were going to meet a new friend of mine." Naruto smiled, hoping that she would be there.

Soon they arrived where Naruto and his clones had been fighting. The utter disarray and destruction that had been caused by the blonde astonished his genin teammate. 'If this was just him taking out his frustrations, I wonder how strong he really is.' Shino thought as they walked through the destroyed part of the forest.

Finally Naruto and Shino got to where the blonde met his new friend. She wasn't there yet, so Shino and Naruto started to talk about their mission. Shino apologized for not seeing how much pain the blonde had been in when he was younger. Naruto brushed his apology off accepting it and telling the boy that it was okay. He knew that Shino could never have known what he was going through.

They started to spar while they waited on Haku, it was only a light spar, with neither really trying to hurt the other. Naruto eventually felt Haku approaching and told Shino that they had company.

"Good morning Naruto, how are you? And who is this?" Haku asked although she knew who it was immediately, she felt her cheeks flush as she looked at the boy in glasses in front of her. He looked so calm and collected. Just as she had remembered. She wondered what his eyes looked like under those glasses.

Shino on the other hand didn't know what to think. In front of him was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He watched her walk towards them in perfection, outwardly he appeared calm, if only barely. 'She looks like an angel!' were his thoughts as Naruto chuckled, bringing him out of his stupor.

"This is Shino, Haku, and tomorrow you will get to meet my other teammate. He is one of my most precious people." Naruto explained.

"So why have we come out here Naruto? Not that I'm complaining, I'm glad you brought me. I'm just curious is all?" Shino asked him still not taking his eyes off of Haku.

"Well Shino I wanted to introduce you to her first, because I feel like the two of you will get along. As for why were even hear in the first place, you'll find out tomorrow when Hinata is here too. For now, just try and get to know her a little. You'll find that she is very interesting to talk with." Naruto said. This put Haku on edge, Naruto definitely knew something, but how? She hadn't said anything today or the day before that would have told him who she was. It was also concerning that if he did in fact know who she was, why was he so calm? What was going on here that she didn't know about?

She calmed a little as Shino started to talk to her, asking her a few questions about her life. She answered them, not giving too much away and then asked him some of her own. He was happy to tell her about his life in the village, and about his family. He didn't mention anything about what made his clan famous. He was too worried that she would judge him, that she would think he was gross.

They talked well into the sunlight getting to know more and more about each other with each passing minute. They both noticed subtle things about the other, like how Haku slowly played with her hair when she got nervous about something. She noticed that he played with his fingers when he did. She thought it was cute that she made him nervous.

Soon it was time for the three to part ways and for the two leaf genin to get start training with Hinata. They bid Haku goodbye and told her that they would see her the next morning. As they walked Naruto was thinking a few things to himself.

'Well that went well, they hit it off nicely. Now I only hope that I can convince her and Zabuza to give up on attacking the bridge builder. To come home with us.' He had known from the very beginning that Haku was the hunter ninja that had "killed" Zabuza before. It was the way she moved and her voice that gave her away, he had burned the night of the fight with Zabuza into his brain with every little detail sticking out to him. It was also the way she talked about her precious person. It had to be Zabuza.

He had told Kakashi of their meeting in private and the silver haired jounin had seen it as a perfect opportunity to recruit the two of them. He knew of Zabuza's failed coup de ta and knew that the man had to have been on the run for several year now, he was bound to be getting tired of all the running and hiding. Kakashi would give him hope for the future, hope for Haku. He hoped that the man would see reasoning that he would want to stop running for the girl that seemed to be like a child to him. Of course Kakashi wasn't sure how the demon of the hidden mist felt about the girl, but Naruto had told him how she felt about Zabuza. If Zabuza didn't take it, it wouldn't be any kind of loss. The genin were to give nothing away.

-APL-

The two genin walked into the house and found that Hinata and Kakashi were already up with Inari.

"Ready to get todays training started?" Kakashi asked and gave Naruto a small nod, which Naruto promptly returned.

"Yes sensei" the four young students chorused.

Kakashi lead them all out to the riverside. He told his three genin to get to sparring and that once they finish two hours he would teach them each a new jutsu. This got them all excited, but Naruto was the most excited. He was more than ready to learn something new. They all got to sparing.

"Alright Inari were going to work on something different to start the day. I'm going to show you some physical exercises and I want you to start doing them every day from now on." Kakashi explained, and then started to slowly go through each exercise that his team did every morning. He explained to the boy that he would have to do them every morning before he started his day, so that he could get stronger. Inari nodded and followed Kakashi's instructions. He trusted that the silver haired man would make him incredibly strong.

The three genin of team seven were done sparring at last. They had all made it for two hours and could still go. They had finally mastered water walking. Kakashi couldn't have been more proud of them, they were a new genin team on their first mission. Most teams would still have to master tree walking, but they had already finished both!

"Alright you three, come here. I'm going to teach each of you a new jutsu. Shino you're going to learn Earth Style: Hardened Skin jutsu. You can learn to use this jutsu offensively as well as defensively. Hardening your skin will help you deal with stronger hits, but it can also help by letting you create weapons out of your armor. These are the hand signs. There are four, and when you master this jutsu you should be able to do it with only one." Kakashi showed Shino the hand signs and then told him to imagine his skin becoming rock hard, like diamond. Shino got to work on the jutsu, testing it each time he did it by having Kakashi create a clone to strike him.

"Hinata for you we have a jutsu called Water Style: Rain Dance. It shouldn't take you long to master this, and it will help you by giving you material to use your water style jutsu with. If you can master this jutsu by the end of tomorrow, I'll show you another that you can use in conjunction with it. Here are the hand signs. There are seven, and once mastered you should be able to use it with one. Your requirement for tomorrow is going to be four though, I don't expect you to master this so easily." He showed her the hand signs and told her that she should imagine a rain cloud forming overhead. She got to work as well. She was excited that she might get to learn two jutsu.

"Naruto your jutsu is going to be different than the other two. You have enough straight up ninjutsu for now. I want you to improve your taijutsu. Now, normally it would take years for someone to improve their style. You, however have an advantage that no one else in the world has. Do you know what that is?" Kakashi asked. He had been trying to figure out a way that they could use the fact that Naruto could summon hundreds of clones at a time to their advantage during training and he had figured it out a few weeks ago. He knew that a person got their clones memories when they dispelled, so it would stand to reason that training the same thing with all those clones would cut the learning time down drastically because with every clone that dispelled the other clones and the original would learn more about what they were trying to do, and therefore, they would get better at it. He had been experimenting with it and found that he could learn something three times as fast with four clones and the original working on it at the same time, with one dispelling every so often. He could only imagine how much this would change Naruto learning curve. Hell the boy could surpass him before he was sixteen, if he trained hard enough with the little trick that Kakashi had come up with.

"Hmm, well if I had to think about it Kakashi sensei, I'm the only one in our whole village that's able to summon as many shadow clones as I do. That doesn't really help me with training though, does it?" Naruto replied, asking.

"Naruto you astound me with how logical you think. Yes that's exactly what I'm talking about. To show you why it helps you with training I want you to summon a clone." Kakashi ordered.

Naruto summoned a clone, and Kakashi told him that he would hold a number with his fingers behind his back and that he wanted Naruto so send the clone to look before dispelling. Naruto did as asked and was surprised when the clone dispelled that he knew what the number was.

"Its three right Kakashi sensei?" he asked and the jounin nodded. Naruto thought about this for a minute and then he finally realized the implications of what had happened.

"So with this, I'll be able to pretty much learn anything I want to, at any time, and anywhere As long as I have clones working on it. I'll learn things faster the more clones I use, and the only thing ill actually have to work on myself is my physical strength and speed. Holy crap Kakashi sensei! Do you know what this means? Ohh man I am so going to abuse the hell out of this!" he exclaimed and grinned in the foxy way that he always did. Kakashi paled at the thought of his student abusing this. He wouldn't be able to beat the boy with enough time, let alone teach him something.

"Good, you see why I'm telling you about this then. I want you to abuse it, it will be a boon for you like no other. You'll learn things in weeks that usually take months, in months when it's usually years. You could surpass me with enough time and training before you turn sixteen Naruto." Kakashi was going to regret telling the boy this. He just knew it.

"Back to the topic at hand. I want you to summon as many clones as you possibly can, don't hold back. I want to check your maximum." Kakashi told him.

Naruto concentrated on building as much chakra as possible. "Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" he yelled and poof, there were 768 Narutos spread out over the river and the clearing.

"So, around 750 of you huh. Alright Naruto I want you to have 300 hundred of them working on the next step for wind manipulation, which is actually different than the one in your books. I want you to stick leaves to your arms and cut them just like you did in your hands. I want you to be able to slice ten leaves on both arms at once. I'm going to teach you how to add wind chakra to your strikes, but you have to be at least at intermediate level before you can learn to coat your body in wind chakra. I want 100 of them working on water walking while cutting leaves, 100 will be working on the same thing while tree climbing. This is so that manipulating wind chakra becomes second nature to you Naruto, you need to be able to do this without even thinking, doing it only subconsciously. Two hundred more of you will be working on his taijutsu style, I want you to make it second nature too. These two things will go hand in hand and if you want to you could become the next assassination specialist for the leaf village next year. Not that I think you should, I'm just saying that you could. The last 68 of you, I want you to work on mastering a wind style jutsu. Pick one and start trying to use it with less hand signs. Now, every thirty minutes, I want ten from every group to dispel. You aren't leaving tonight until all of them are gone. Come with me Naruto, you and I are going to up your physical training a bit. I want you to double your regimen." Kakashi finished explaining what he wanted the boy to do and Naruto paled. Kakashi sensei was a slave driver! How did he expect all of that to be done at the same time? Not that he wasn't going to do it, but still.

The original Naruto got started, he doubled every exercise that he did. Kakashi did this so that Naruto's muscles would steer toward being lithe and lean, rather than bulky. He didn't think the boy would have a problem with that, but it would also help his speed.

-APL-

Miles away in an undisclosed cave somewhere unimportant, two people were talking. A young girl around a certain blonde's age and an older male, he looked to be around 18.

The girl had crimson eyes, fair skin, and bright red hair that she wore in an unusual hairstyle. It was short and spiky on the right side, while longer and straight on the left side. She wore brown narrow glasses, which had a serrated blade hidden in them, and her outfit consisted of a lavender uniform that exposed her navel, short black shorts, and long black thigh high stockings with black sandals. Over this uniform she wore a long black cloak that had red clouds littering it in a random fashion. Her chest, neck and arms were covered with bite marks that resulted from the person she was with biting her to heal, although he didn't like to do so. All of the bite marks were hidden by her uniform.

The male however, had onyx eyes under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs. He had jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and his face was framed with center-parted bangs that extended about an inch passed his chin. He wore a long billowing black cloak that the woman wore and a slashed Konoha forehead protector that symbolized his broken ties with the village. The cloak's high collar obscured his ponytail. Under his cloak he wore mesh armor with navy accents under an identical T-shirt with a simple white belt around the waist and dark blue pants. On his right ring finger was a ring, which was red and bore the kanji for "vermillion" on it. He wore purple nail polish on his fingers and toes and a necklace that had three silver rings with red gems inside them.

"Itachi-kun, when are we going to make our move against my brother, I'm excited to see how strong he's gotten since he learned of our parentage." The girl asked, thinking of her blonde brother. She didn't want to capture him, but orders were orders. She looked at the man she had come to love with all of her heart since he was inducted into the Akatsuki two and a half years prior. They had become inseparable. He was like the older brother she never had, but yet more than that at the same time. They connected on a level that was different than anything she had ever felt before. She knew that he would do anything for her, and he knew the same.

"Karin-chan, you know that we can't move in to capture Naruto-kun until after the chunin exams, which will be in around 4 months. We don't have the means to mobilize just yet, but we will. And besides, you know what our real plans are, why are you so worried?" he asked. They had been planning something secret from the other Akatsuki members since the day they become partners.

"I don't know, I just want him to like me, to see me as the sister that these bastards took away from him, and not an enemy." She replied. She looked up to her love, and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. Itachi kissed her back gingerly, comforting her with his touch.

"He will Karin-chan, just you wait. You will have a family again, just as I will. I've been feeding Jiraiya as much information as I can, so that they will be ready for us. I just hope that he doesn't think that I'm trying to trick him. He does know the truth about the massacre though, so he should be able to trust us." Itachi replied, now slightly worried himself, that the toad sage wouldn't be able to trust them enough to act on the information that he had given to the man.

Karin comforted Itachi just as he had done for her, she told him not to worry. They continued to talk about their plans as the morning continued. The relationship between the two of them had been a very innocent one thus far, and she was thankful for that. She wasn't sure if she was ready to give that part of herself up just yet. She thought that he knew that and it's why he was waiting, for her to be ready. It made her happy that the man she loved cared so much for her.

For Itachi it was like he went from night to day when he met Karin. He had just left the village and gotten inducted into Akatsuki. He was given his first partner and was surprised to learn that it was a thirteen year old girl from his home village. She had been taken from her parents, who were the fourth and Kushina. The masked Akatsuki member Tobi, had taken her when she was born during the Kyuubi attack along with Naruto. He had wanted to take the Kyuubi's jinchuriki as well, but wasn't able to thanks to the fourth's protection during the sealing. He had slipped into Kushina's room while in her weakened state, she could do nothing to stop him from taking her daughter, and Naruto's twin sister. Itachi felt like she was his younger sister at first, but then that all changed when she had confessed her love for him and kissed him for the first time. Things started to change inwardly with Itachi and soon he felt the same if not stronger for her than she did. He was waiting to take things further between the two of them, because he wanted to make it just right. For her.

-APL-

Night had fallen quickly over the river side as our three genin and Inari continued to train relentlessly. Naruto's clones were helping him tremendously, he had mastered the step of elemental manipulation that Kakashi had explained to him. It had been hard, but having hundreds of clones that were learning the same thing alongside him cut the normal time by a whole lot! It had still taken them all day, but he had done it. There was only one more step to mastering wind manipulation, but Naruto didn't think he would be able to even start trying to master that particular task. He dispelled the final ten clones, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. "Ackk" he yelled and fell to the ground.

Naruto's team and Inari quickly came to his aid. They weren't sure what was going on.

"Let's take him to Kakashi sensei" Hinata suggested, worried about her teammate and long time crush. The two young genin and Inari carried the blonde, all the way back to Tazuna's. Kakashi looked at Naruto, with a worried look on his face.

"What happened you three?" he asked. He had an idea of what was going on, but wanted to make sure.

"Kakashi sensei, Naruto dispelled the last of his shadow clones and passed out! Is he going to be ok?" Hinata exclaimed. Kakashi helped them get the boy inside and on the couch. He told them that Naruto should be fine and that they would have to wait until he woke up to make sure. Tonight would be a long night for team 7 for sure.

A few hours passed and finally Naruto stirred. This woke all of team 7 and Inari up immediately. Naruto slowly opened his eyes.

"Oww, my head... what happened?" Naruto asked groggily holding his head with his right hand. Kakashi stood up and walked over to the blond, he asked Naruto a few questions to make sure he was alright mentally and then sat next to the blonde.

"Well Naruto it looks like you dispelled too many clones throughout the day and your brain overloaded from receiving too much information. I'd say that you won't be able to use so many clones for our training anymore. Stick to around 100 for now and we will test out this theory when we get home." Kakashi told the boy and Naruto groaned. He had been excited that he would have another edge in his training. While using 100 clones to train would surely help him, it wouldn't be nearly as good as using the most he could make. Nonetheless the blonde nodded and told his sensei that he would be careful.

"Alright you four let's get some sleep and we can get back to training in the morning, we only have five days left." The silver haired jounin stated, and everyone went to their bedrooms to sleep.

-APL-

The next morning came quickly for our team. Naruto woke up first, surprisingly being the most rested out of everyone. He quickly got ready and woke up his two teammates. "Shino come on were going to go introduce Hinata to Haku." He told the boy, who blushed at the mention of the brown hair young woman's name.

"Hinata wake up" he whispered, "We have someone we would like to meet."

The girl stirred slowly. Naruto watched as she slowly woke up. 'Wow she's so cute when she's asleep' the blonde boy thought blushing slightly as she stirred. The thought startled him, he had never thought of Hinata in such a way.

When Hinata and Shino were both fully awake Naruto told them to follow him out to the forest, they were led to where Naruto and Shino had met Haku the morning before. She hadn't arrived yet so the team set to relaxing against a tree. It had been almost a week since they had truly been able to relax, so the quiet of the forest was a nice change.

The three of them talked about the mission and how much it scared, excited, and made them all nervous at the same time.

Soon the sun was starting to illuminate the forest more, and finally Haku made her presence known. Team 7 stood up, noticing her walking into the small clearing. Naruto greeted her with a smile and a wave. "Hey Haku, this is Hinata, my other teammate and precious person. Hinata this is Haku, I met her a while back and wanted to introduce you both to her."

Hinata blushed when Naruto referred to her as his precious person 'does he really think of me as precious to him?' she thought, and said hello to Haku, greeting her. The girl smiled and they all sat down in the clearing together.

"Now, as to the real reason why I've introduced you all to each other. Haku I know that you're the hunter ninja that saved Zabuza." Naruto stated, surprising everyone.

'He knows?!' Haku practically screamed in her mind. Hinata and Shino were completely floored as well, wondering what all this was about.

"How did you know?" the brunette asked Naruto.

"It was easy honestly, you were out here gathering herbs. Herbs that are for rejuvenating muscles and healing cuts and bruises. The way you talked to me, and the way you moved also gave you away. Not to mention the most obvious thing, when you talked about your precious person and how fighting for him made you stronger, I knew immediately who you were. Haku I'm not here to fight you or to ambush you, I promise that I come in peace. My jounin sensei wants to extend an offer of peace and hope to your master. We, being him and I, want you to come with us and join the leaf as ninja. Kakashi sensei gave me this scroll that he wants you to give to Zabuza. You two can think about what you want to do while he recovers, and this'll be the last time we meet out here. The three of us have to train, in case we do have to fight you two in the next few days." Naruto explained this slowly, shocking everyone in the clearing. His two genin teammates had no idea what was going on and Haku was taken aback by the boy's forwardness. Naruto handed Haku the scroll and smiled.

"I'm glad we met Haku, you mean a lot to me already. I hope that Zabuza can see what we are offering is the best thing for both of you." Naruto continued to smile, and Haku was starting to think that it could be too good to be true.

"What would be the benefit of us coming home with you Naruto? Could you promise that we would be welcomed in your village? What if our answer is no?" Haku asked these questions in quick succession not knowing how else to handle the situation that her new friend had brought to her.

Naruto smiled at the girl. "Well Haku the main benefit would be that you two would have a home, you wouldn't have to run anymore. Our Hokage has already received word about you and the prospect of you joining Konoha, and were expecting a reply today. If your answer is no then I'd suggest that you get ready for the hardest fight of your life, were not going to go easy on you and we will protect Tazuna." Naruto answered her questions quickly and without hesitation, leaving the girl dumbfounded. This boy was only thirteen, how was he able to see reason and logic that clearly. He was even starting to convince her that it was a good thing. That she and Zabuza could have a real home for the first time.

"Alright now that the seriousness is over Haku, I'd like you to know that no matter what happens were still friends. We always will be." Naruto said, and then told her that they needed to get back, so that they could train. With one final wave of goodbye the three genin of team seven parted ways with Haku, leaving her in the clearing.

-APL-

While they were walking back Naruto was bombarded by question from his teammates.

"Why weren't we included in on this Naruto-kun?" Hinata had asked. She wanted to know why their sensei had left them out.

"If you had known, then she would have instantly known something was up Hinata-chan. This was the only way to make sure she didn't get scared off" Naruto replied, deep down Hinata knew he was right. They couldn't have all known or she would have too.

"Naruto, is she really going to be able to live in the village with us?" Shino asked, his blush hidden by his coat.

"Well, if Zabuza agrees to it, then sure." Naruto told him. Naruto had a sneaking suspicion as to why the boy had asked, but said nothing.

Soon they arrived back at the small house that belonged to Tazuna. Kakashi was waiting for them. "How did it go Naruto? Do you think they will come?" he asked the blonde.

"Honestly I'm not sure, but I think there's a good chance. Zabuza should see that were offering him an amazing deal here. He's not stupid." Naruto said, pretty much answering Kakashi's question.

Let's go out and start our training you four." Kakashi told them as Inari walked up to them.

The five of them headed out and started training intensely together!

-APL-

In another location, not too far away.

"Zabuza –sama, I've come back from meeting with the young blonde genin, you'll want to see this. They know." Haku explained to her master. Zabuza looked at Haku incredulously.

"What?! how did they find out?" he asked her and she explained everything, she told him how Naruto had known all along and how she had made friends with the blonde and his teammates throughout their short meetings. She told him about Kakashi's proposal and what it could mean for them.

"Zabuza-sama please, just look at the scroll Naruto gave me and think about it. This could mean a new start for us." Zabuza looked at the girl who had become like his daughter over the years. Most who met them thought that he only thought of her as a tool, and that was also her misconception. Although she knew that she meant more to him than just that.

'Hmm, she may be right. I'm getting tired of all this running and hiding. I can at least read what Kakashi has to say.' He thought as she looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Alright Haku, ill read what he has to say, but I'm not making any judgment until we fight them. I need to test their strength, and to see their resolve before I just pack up and go along with them." He told her as he slowly opened the scroll.

 _Zabuza,_

 _If you're reading this then Naruto has successfully convinced Haku that she should give this to you and that you should read it. I'm offering peace for you two. Give up this mission to kill the bridge builder and come to Konoha with us. You know that it will mean that you'll be able to take actual missions again, you'll be able to make a regular pay, and most of all you and Haku will have a home._

 _I think that your strength together would be invaluable to the village hidden in the leaves. You would leave all ties with Kiri behind, but you would have a chance. A chance for a new start. To give Haku the life that she deserves, not the life of a fugitive._

 _I've sent a missive to the Hokage explaining the situation and what I think should be done about it. I believe that you are of course jounin level so you would be automatically put into that rank after a test against a few other jounin of the village. I am not sure of Haku's skillset however, but a hunch has led me to believe that she is of at least chunin level, so she would also be given a test for that rank._

 _If the two of you join us, as free ninja of the leaf you would be free to do pretty much whatever you wanted, take any missions you wanted, live anywhere in or around the village that you wanted, and you would be welcomed to your new home with open arms._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Kakashi_

Zabuza read through it once again. It did sound too good to be true, but for Haku, he would take that chance. Providing that the team they were up against proved themselves to the missing ninja of the mist, of course. He would test them when he recovered, and then he would decide what to do next.

-APL-

The next five days went by very quickly for our squad 7. They trained relentlessly with Kakashi and Inari. Kakashi showed Inari the basics of taijutsu and started to teach the boy the "academy three" which were substitution, clones, and transformation. The boy was learning very quickly. Before long. Maybe a year or two, he would be ready to become genin rank, in the jounin's eyes. He took to taijutsu and ninjutsu like they were made for him, but genjutsu was another thing entirely. The boy had no knack for it at all! It would take him a while before he was even able to dispel low level genjutsu, from the way things were looking. Kakashi was very proud of the boy, and was already thinking of ways to make him stronger, and also to possibly incorporate him into Konoha's ranks, at least until he got old enough to start an academy of sorts in wave. The best idea in his mind so far, was to have a jounin from Konoha take a long term mission to wave, to be a jounin sensei for a team based out of the small country.

Hinata had almost mastered rain dance completely and was well on her way with the second jutsu that Kakashi had promised her. It was water style: water blades. With this jutsu the user needed to have a copious amount of water all around them. The y focused their chakra and sent blades of water either in a circle all around them to defend with, or straight at their target for offense. He was proud of her for how far she had come in the last week and a half.

Shino had also mastered his hardened skin jutsu and was now working on elongating and sharpening his knuckles while he used the jutsu. He also worked every day on incorporating the new weapons into his kajukenbo style. He was making very good progress, but wasn't very close to mastering it just yet. He enjoyed the thought he had to put into this style that he was creating. It wasn't the original kajukenbo anymore. It was more lethal, and a lot less defense oriented.

Naruto learned the most, of course because of his clones. Kakashi had been teaching him how to add wind natured chakra to his strikes, making them bladed or blunt. It was extremely hard and Naruto was barely in the first stages. He knew that once he master this style of the roaring dragon fist that he would be practically undefeatable. He could defend himself with blunt wind armor so that strikes against him did little to no damage, and his attacks would be extremely lethal with blades of wind that came from anywhere that he chose. He knew that it would be invaluable to him in the long run to go through this grueling training. It would be a long time before he got anywhere close to mastering it though, the most he could do right now was to create a small defensive barrier around parts of his body. It was a good thing that he could do this though. He could defend himself against most weaker attacks and some strong ones.

They had been training for five days straight and were taking the rest of the day off. Tomorrow was the day that Kakashi told them Zabuza would most likely be healed. They were taking it easy.

 **A/n- Review, review, and review some more they always make me happy!**


	6. Homecoming!

**A/n- Here is the next chapter. Hope you guys enjoy.**

The team had gone to sleep early that night, and were well rested by the time morning came. Tsunami woke them up and told them to come down stairs to eat breakfast. Today was the day. The day that they were going to possibly face off against two of the strongest opponents they would ever face. they all got up and ate breakfast. Kakashi told them that they would go to the bridge today and take an active role in protecting Tazuna, until Zabuza showed up. Kakashi had been sending shadow clones of himself with the man until now. The three genin of team seven were getting very antsy at the thought of fighting.

They finished their breakfast of some bacon and eggs that Tsunami had cooked for them. It was time to set out, so Naruto and Kakashi left a few clones with his daughter just in case. Tazuna led them to the bridge and when they approached they were stunned at how for the building team had progressed. The bridge was now almost three quarters completed! When they had first arrived it looked like they were just starting.

The three genin settled into their positions and waited for something to happen. It was a bright sunny day, a good day for a fight! Naruto summoned clones to help the men work, and they all started talking, wondering what was going to happen today.

Around noon, a messenger bird arrived from Konoha.

Kakashi walked over to it as it landed on the railing of the bridge. He gingerly took the small scroll that was tied to its leg. 'This is probably word from the Hokage on what he wants to do about Zabuza and Haku.' The man thought as he slowly unrolled the scroll.

 _Kakashi,_

 _I agree with your reasoning and as long as they agree to come with you your promises to them are completely valid and I will give them what you've told them I will. They will be free ninja, in the leaf and their ranks will be according to whether they can pass their individual tests. I have already set up housing for the two of them. You may show this seal to them as proof of your words._

 _Sincerely_

 _Hiruzen Sarutobi,_

 _Hokage of Konoha._

Kakashi smiled as he read the letter, thanking the Hokage silently, he showed his team and they were excited to see what the two shinobi they were facing would do.

Time passed by slowly, crawling by as if every second was an hour. Suddenly a thick mist fell over the bridge. It happened in the blink of an eye, two figures appeared in the distance. They were about ten feet from Naruto, who was the farthest along the bridge.

"We meet again, Kakashi." A voice rang out around team seven. "So are you three genin ready to die?"

The voice, it sent shivers down the spines of everyone in the vicinity except for one, and that was Kakashi. The three genin were genuinely more frightened then they had ever been. Their hearts raced at the killing intent that was being released from the two people in the mist in front of them. Sweat ran down the three young ninja's necks.

"I am not dying here Zabuza! So give me your best shot, we won't fail!" Naruto blurted out in anger, calming his teammates somewhat. They were still scared out of their mind of course, but a little less so after their teammates outburst of pride.

"Oooh tough guy huh? We will see about that." Zabuza said and signaled Haku to begin her assault. Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi swinging his sword, which Kakashi blocked with ease. Kakashi and Zabuza started their battle with some taijutsu.

Haku threw three senbon at her opponents which they blocked just as easily as Kakashi had. She then charged Naruto at full speed, brandishing a nasty looking ice whip that she had created as soon as her senbon left her hands.

Naruto blocked the whip, and quickly turned the seal for his weights off. He disappeared right before Haku's eyes and in the blink of an eye was behind her. He had a kunai to her neck and she couldn't move without giving up her life.

"Hmmm you got me Naruto, I'd be impressed if this were the real me." The form of Haku in front of the blonde haired boy dissolved into water and he grinned. He knew that she wouldn't be caught that easily. Kakashi and Zabuza had moved their taijutsu battle to a short brawl with their weapons. Kakashi used his kunai in both hands while Zabuza preferred his sword Kubikirihocho, Hinata and Shino dropped their seals as well and readied themselves just as Haku ran at Naruto, senbon in hand. They locked weapons in a short standstill before Haku smirked.

"You're at a very big disadvantage here Naruto. Quit now while you can." She held her place firmly. She wouldn't lose this battle!

"Oh and how is that?" he asked as he pushed forward.

"First, were surrounded by water, which is my element. Second, you don't have another hand to do jutsu with." She grinned behind her mask before starting through a series of one handed seals. 'What?! She can do jutsu with only one hand?' Naruto thought just as she finished.

"Ice Style: Piercing Ice Needles!" she yelled and instantly needles of ice formed from the water around them and came rushing toward Naruto from all directions. 'Shit this is going to hurt!' he screamed in his mind as the first of the senbon stuck him.

"Ahhhh!" he screamed as he was stabbed all over by the ice. Haku jumped back, and readied herself to continue her assault on her blonde adversary. She didn't want to kill him, but they needed to be tested if Zabuza was to be sure about his decision. 'I'm not going to be beaten by her, I can't let them kill Tazuna!' were the thoughts in his mind as he fell to his knees. 'I have to get up!'

Slowly he made his way back to his feet, Shino told Hinata to cover Tazuna. He then jumped towards Haku throwing a kunai. "Earth Style: Hardened Skin Jutsu" Shino said as he finished the hand signs for the jutsu. His skin darkened slowly and hardened until it was harder than rock. He concentrated and made his hardened knuckles prolonged and sharp, he now had inch long spikes protruding from the knuckles. He made a mud wall to protect Naruto while he recovered from her attack. Haku was now on guard and reluctant to fight the boy she liked. She didn't know him all that well yet, but she felt that if given the opportunity there could be something there. He was quiet, but sincere. He was also very cute, which made it all the harder for her to fight.

Shino jumped at her feeling the same way, he threw a punch at her gut. She brought a shield of ice up to block his fist and started making hand signs. "Ice Style: Ice Spikes!" she yelled and Shino had to jump back to escape the three spears of ice that would have impaled him from all directions.

-APL-

Kakashi was hard pressed to keep up with Zabuza in this fight. The masked ninja was coming at him like a mad man. Zabuza came down with his sword and Kakashi dodged out of the way. 'I have to do something!' Kakashi thought as he started hand signs for a jutsu.

"Water Style: Water Whip Jutsu!" Kakashi formed a whip with his chakra and started his attack on Zabuza. He swung from the left, and hit Zabuza's leg. Zabuza couldn't close the distance between them without suffering a few blows, and he wouldn't be able to stand many more of those. He threw three shuriken at the silver haired jounin which were easily blocked.

"Kakashi, you won't win! Water style: Hidden Mist Jutsu!" he set the mist onto the battlefield, it was thick and Kakashi couldn't see a thing.

Soon he was forced to block Zabuza's sword from behind. "You know you're going to lose Kakashi." The voice of Zabuza came from behind him.

"You are the one going to lose here Zabuza." The silver haired jounin replied. He had to figure out a way to find his enemy! He would die if he couldn't.

-APL-

"Naruto are you ok? Can you still fight?" the genin asked the blonde boy as he rejoined him behind the wall of earth.

"Yeah I think so. I've gotten all the needles out and it doesn't hurt as much." Naruto replied.

"Good, we need to come up with a plan."

"I think I have one." Naruto told him and started explaining the plan to the boy. Shino would fight her close range while Naruto used his long range attacks on her.

Shino jumped over the wall at the girl, and threw a kick towards her head. She blocked with her ice and they exchanged a few blows.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Naruto exclaimed as he started firing his jutsu at Haku. She jumped back dodging his attack and retreating from Shino. 'I've got to end this; I'm going to run out of chakra sooner or later. I can already feel the drain from this battle.'

"Ice Style: Demonic Ice Mirrors!" she exclaimed and sheets of mirrored ice formed around her and her boy crush, Shino. They were surrounded on all sides and overhead by her mirrors of ice. Shino looked around wondering just what was going on. Everywhere he looked another mirror blocking his path out.

Naruto was surprised when he was suddenly blocked off from Shino, there was enough space to get inside but he wasn't sure that that was the best option yet. "Shino, I'm going to look for an opening out here for a little while, keep her busy!" Naruto told his teammate as their enemy jumped into one of the mirrors! Shino knew that was the best option, but he didn't know what he could do to fight her inside her mirrors.

He ran up to one of them and punched it as hard as he could, not even putting a scratch on it. What were these damned things even made of?

"You'll have to do better than that Shino-kun" Haku told the boy. She then started her assault. She moved from on mirror to the opposite in a matter of seconds, slicing Shino's body each time she moved.

"Ahh!" Shino exclaimed as she continued to attack him relentlessly. He grabbed a wound on his arm, putting pressure on it.

A fireball suddenly hit several mirrors, not affecting them in the slightest. "Doesn't look like they're weak to taijutsu or ninjutsu Shino, we can't break them at our current level! We have to stop her or you'll be torn to shreds!"

"I know that Naruto, but I can't do anything with my taijutsu. I'm going to try something, and if it works all I have to do is outlast her." Suddenly his insects surrounded him with a thick cloud of buzzing black bodies. She attacked him over and over, hitting several non-vital spots.

Soon she noticed it. The overwhelming drain on her chakra. This boy was sucking her dry! How! 'It's the bugs!' her epiphany didn't help her cause however, as she got slower and slower. Shino was riddled with senbon and cuts by now. He was almost out of this fight.

Naruto saw his chance and ran into the dome of mirrors, hitting Haku in the face as she went at Shino yet again. 'I have to do something. This is my only chance' she thought as she began the hand signs for her last ditch effort to subdue the boys. She entered a mirror and continued the long string of signs. There were thirty-six of them for this jutsu.

Finally, she was almost done. The boys could only watch at this point, they couldn't hope to get to her while she was encased in the ice.

"Ice Style: Demonic Murder!" she said as she moved to the top most mirror. Almost in an instant all of the mirrors except for the top one shattered, the shards hovered in the air and soon enough there were thousands of senbon surrounding them. In an instant the two male genin of team seven were skewer by each and every one of the needles.

Haku looked down on them in sadness. it was the only way that she could beat them. she had to take them both down at the same time.

Minutes passed, each second seemed like an hour to the girl. 'What? How is he able to move?'

Naruto slowly stood on his feet. He was riddled with cuts, and there were senbon sticking out of every inch of the boy's body. He looked down to Shino, 'oh no! what happened to us? One minute there were senbon all around and now...' he knelt down to his teammate, who wasn't breathing. "Shino! Wake up Shino! You're not dead! You can't be!" There were tears streaming down Naruto's cheeks as he held one of his best friends. He couldn't be dead. Could he? The blonde turned his attention to Haku. "How dare you! He was my friend! Did he mean that little to you? That you could just..." The tears flowed freely now staining Shino's shirt with the salty liquid.

The blonde smashed the ground with his fist, a red aura slowly surrounded him. **"I'll kill you for this Haku! I'll kill you!"** The voice that spoke those words was not Naruto, it was deeper, guttural, almost demonic! Naruto's eyes turned a blood red, his pupils changing to a thin black slit. His whiskers darkened, and his fingernails elongated and sharpened. The boy rushed at the mirror of ice above him, with almost inhuman speed. One minute he was on the ground and the next minute he wasn't more than a foot from Haku's ice.

"Shit! I have to get out of here!" she exclaimed as she narrowly escaped her ice. Naruto's punch shattered the ice instantly as Haku fell to the ground below. Within seconds the boy was on top of her again, he swiped at her face with his newly clawed hand knocking her hard into the ground. She stood up and looked at the blonde in front of her, who was standing only a few feet away.

"how could you do that Haku?" he asked, tears staining the ground at his feet. "how could you kill him; he didn't do anything to you!"

"Naruto. Shino-kun isn't dead." That made the blonde pause. He couldn't believe what she was saying.

-APL-

"What was that power!? It was almost demonic!" Kakashi had felt the demonic chakra and panicked. What if the seal was breaking? This was not the time for Naruto to lose control.

"Kakashi, what is this chakra?" Zabuza asked as he attacked once again. Kakashi blocked and knew that he would need to end this as soon as possible.

"It's my student... sorry Zabuza, but I'm going to have to put an end to this as quickly as possible." Kakashi told him. He had finally figured out a way to find his foe in the mist. When he thought about it, it was almost too easy.

"What do you mean, put an end to this? I'm the one with the advantage here Kakashi!" Zabuza growled.

"Summoning jutsu." Kakashi whispered as he pulled out a scroll and bit his thumb. He opened the scroll, spreading the blood that flowed freely along it. Several dogs 'poofed' into existence. "Find him and restrain him you guys. We need to end this before things get out of hand."

Soon enough Zabuza was caught, the dogs had sniffed him out and were now restraining each of his limbs with their teeth. Kakashi did the hand signs for his signature jutsu, the lightning blade. Electricity crackled in the palm of his hand.

"Kakashi wait. I need to tell you that Haku and I have agreed to follow you to the leaf. We just wanted to test you, and your team. We had to be sure that you weren't a bunch of weaklings. I had to be sure." Zabuza grunted, knowing that he was finished.

"Why go this far for a simple test Zabuza?" Kakashi wondered aloud.

"Because if I'm going to join your village, and become a jounin, I can't have my teammates slowing me down on missions. They'll get me killed, and I have someone I have to live for." Zabuza replied evenly. Kakashi called off his dogs and they disappeared in a puff of smoke. He knew that Zabuza was only thinking about Haku's well-being.

-APL-

"So all of this was just a test?!" Naruto asked incredulously, relieved now that he knew that Shino would be alright. The girl hadn't aimed at any vital spots and only put Shino into a deathlike state, it would take a while, but Shino would recover just fine. Haku explained to Naruto after she told him that Shino would be okay, that she was only testing their strength. Her master wanted to make sure that the ninja of the leaf weren't just a bunch of weaklings. He wanted to be confident in the ninja that they had chosen to follow, that they wouldn't get either one of them killed on a mission.

The mist around the bridge dissipated slowly, and soon they could all see each other. Naruto calmed Hinata down when she saw Shino, who had woken up after Haku removed the senbon from his body. He was still very weak and couldn't even move properly, it would be at least two weeks before he was back to full strength.

The five ninja came together to talk about the agreement that they were making. Kakashi showed Zabuza and Haku the letter from the Hokage and they were both pleased with the conditions. Now that the fighting had stopped they all just had to wait for Tazuna to complete the bridge.

"Not so fast! This bridge isn't getting completed if I have anything to say about it." A short man stood at the end of the bridge with a sizable army of thugs.

"I-its Gato!" Tazuna exclaimed.

"What do you say Kakashi, I'll take half and you take the other half?" Zabuza grinned.

"Those terms are acceptable, Zabuza."

"Don't forget me!" Naruto grinned foxily and the three of them stood together.

Needless to say the fighting was over within seconds, the only one left standing at this point was Gato.

"He's all yours Zabuza." The two leaf ninja told him.

Zabuza ran at the man and swung his sword down on his head, cleaving the man cleanly in two.

-APL-

Two weeks later the bridge was finally finished. The ninja had watched over Tazuna as he and his building crew worked relentlessly to finish their project. the village calmed down after Gato had been killed, and they were able to continue with their businesses without worrying about punishment from the tycoon.

Inari had gotten a lot stronger in the two weeks that had passed. Zabuza took over his training, and taught him everything that he could. He had finally mastered the academy three to the point that Kakashi was satisfied. Zabuza was now training him in a basic taijutsu style. He was learning very quickly, but now it was time to go. Only one more day and they would be leaving.

Shino had been bedridden almost the entire time. He was awake most of the time, but moving was out of the question. Haku had taken this chance to get to know the boy even more! They traded stories every day, but sometimes they just sat together talking. They were beginning to become very comfortable with each other.

Hinata and Naruto had also spent a lot of time together in the last two weeks. They spent most of it either sitting and talking or training together. They had gotten a lot closer during this time. Naruto still wasn't sure how he felt about her, but he knew that he wanted to find out. She was strong, and yet she was sweet and cute. He had decided that when they got back he would take her on a date. He hadn't asked her yet and he was extremely nervous about it. He was going to ask her during their time off.

Kakashi had decided to wait to talk to Naruto about the incident on the bridge until they got back to the village. He and Zabuza had been talking about Kakashi's plans for Inari, and Zabuza agreed that Tazuna's village needed someone to protect them. Zabuza had agreed that he would help Kakashi train the boy. Kakashi felt that he could work it out with the Hokage that someone would go to the Land of Waves and train Inari and a few chosen others in the ways of the ninja.

It was now the morning that they would be leaving. Naruto was sad that they had to go. They were standing at the entrance of the village, which was now the beginning of the bridge.

"We will all miss you guys! You helped our village so much!" tsunami said as she hugged the three young genin. They all got embarrassed and were red in the face when she let them go.

"Thank you for training me!" Inari had tears in his eyes at seeing them leave.

Naruto put his hand on Inari's head, "You know Inari, it's okay to cry if they're tears of joy. It's okay, really." Naruto rubbed the boy's hair, and Inari looked at him indignantly.

"If that's true... then you first Naruto!" Inari laughed at Naruto's face in response. He stuck his tongue out at the blond, because both of them knew that neither would cry. Kakashi laughed at the boys' pigheadedness.

"Come on you five, it's time to go." Kakashi said, knowing that it would be harder for the genin to leave if any more time went by.

They walked through the gate, this group of six ninja. They were finally headed back to the village. Zabuza and Haku were excited to see their new home. They eagerly walked down the road that headed toward the village hidden in the leaves.

-APL-

The sun was setting on the third day of traveling for the band of leaf ninja. They were almost home.

Naruto was excited to finally be back in the village after almost a month being gone. He wanted to see all of his friends and check on how his house was doing, not to mention that he missed the Hokage. The old man meant a lot to the blonde.

Shino and Hinata were just ready to get some rest after being gone so long.

"We will see the gate soon, were almost there." Kakashi told them. They continued walking and sure enough the village gates came into view. They walked up to them and the guards of the gate, Izumo and Kotetsu called them over.

"Team seven returning from our first C rank mission. We have two new additions to the village with us." Kakashi explained to them.

"Good to see that you guys made it back! Hokage-sama has been waiting for your return, he is expecting you. Go to his office immediately and report in." Izumo explained.

Kakashi nodded and turned to his team, "Let's go and see the Hokage, you five. He will want to meet Haku and Zabuza and we need to let him know that the rank of the mission was upgraded and that we will be receiving extra pay from the Land of Waves in the coming months."

"Yes sensei!" the three genin under Kakashi replied. They quickly made their way to the Hokage tower. The village was just as it had been, the shops hadn't changed. People were going about their daily lives. The Hokage told them to enter as soon as they knocked.

"Ah, Kakashi you and your team have returned. It's good to see that you all are ok. And you've brought new people for me to tort- erm… send on missions." The two new ninja to the leaf sweat dropped as the four ninja of team seven laughed at the Hokage's antics. The old man grew serious now.

"You two, I have prepared a house for you to live in. I assume that you'd like to live together given your relationship." Zabuza nodded, but he wasn't sure what the old man meant by 'their relationship'. What had Kakashi told him?

"Good your respective tests will be given in a few days' time. Then I will decide on your ranks as ninja of this village and you will be able to accept missions. Until then, train and rest up. Here is a map of the village so that you can get acclimated. Come back here tomorrow so that I can have a more in depth discussion with you Zabuza." The man nodded and Hiruzen gave them leave to go and see their new homes.

-APL-

The two ninja left the Hokage's office and made their way to the entrance of the Hokage tower. "Alright Haku It looks like our new house is this way." Zabuza told the girl and led her through the streets of Konoha. As they walked Zabuza noticed the looks they were getting. Men were staring at Haku like she was a new piece of meat to try. Surprisingly the women were looking at him the same way.

"What's going on here Zabuza-sama?" Haku asked wondering why they were both being stared at. She wasn't used to the attention they were getting.

"If you all know what's good for you, quit your gawking! Yes, we are new here. Get the fuck over it!" Zabuza let out a little of his killing intent, scaring the villagers senseless. Needless to say, they stopped staring.

His little outburst made Haku giggle at the way he handled it. "Thank you Zabuza-sama, that's better. Now, where are we going?"

They made their way to the new home. It was a small house, one story. It looked as if it was nice.

"Want to go inside?" Zabuza nodded and they walked inside. They explored for a little while, and found that the small house was very cozy. It had two decently sized bedrooms that had bathrooms attached to them. The living room was big enough to seat ten people comfortably, and the kitchen was nice as well.

"We need to thank the Hokage, this is nice." Zabuza said as he sat on the couch with his surrogate daughter. He had made the right choice. They could make a life here. A future, the thought of staying here the rest of his life made Zabuza happy. truly happy, like his problems were beginning to end. Haku was beginning to think along the same lines. She smiled at Zabuza, everything would be alright.

They sat there for a while thinking about what life would be like in Konoha. "Want to go out and meet some of our fellow ninja?" Zabuza asked.

"Sure, could be interesting." Haku grinned.

-APL-

"Hokage-sama we will be getting pay for an A rank mission for the mission to wave in a few months. I request that you give my team and I a week off, to recuperate. Naruto has experienced his first kill and may need time to come to grips with it." Naruto didn't understand what Kakashi meant at first but he hadn't thought about the fact that he had killed those thugs. He had taken another life. His face showed all that the Hokage needed to know.

"Granted. Now here is your mission pay, congratulations you three on your first successful C ranked mission." The Hokage told them to go home and rest, but told Naruto that he wanted to talk with him. Naruto nodded and bid his team goodbye as they went their separate ways.

"Naruto, I know what you're going through right now. You just realized that you had to take lives on this mission and it's just sinking in. Are you alright?" Hiruzen gingerly asked the boy. Naruto slowly nodded.

"Why is this so hard to take? It's in our job description old man. Why's it so hard to come to terms with the fact that I k-killed those thugs? I know that it had to be done, but now all I see is their faces. Their dead eyes staring at me in my mind. What do I do?" Naruto was crying now; he just couldn't take it. He had killed people! His hands were stained with their blood and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

"Naruto, your first kill is always the hardest to take. You had to kill more than one person on this mission. It's going to be hard, but you have to realize that it had to be done. If you hadn't killed those thugs, what would have happened to Hinata and Shino? Think about it, they would have died. You wouldn't have been able to forgive yourself if they had died and you could have prevented it." The old man took a drag from his pipe, his heart went out to the boy. He knew that it would be a while before Naruto got over this. He had to learn that it was kill or be killed in this world. That was the only way he would understand that he had no choice.

"I know old man. I know! I just... I don't know what to do, I've killed men. I know they would have killed my team and I if I hadn't, but that doesn't make this any easier!" Naruto's tears continued to fall.

"Come here Naruto." The old man got up and motioned for the boy to come to him. Naruto nodded and walked to his grandfather figure. Hiruzen held the boy, giving him a hug. He told Naruto that it would be okay. He told him to go and see his friends. With time he would come to understand.

"Go and get some rest for tonight. You have a week off to spend time with your friends and come to grips with this. It won't be easy Naruto, but you will. Trust me." Naruto nodded and the Hokage told him that he would see him soon. The blonde left on his way home now.

"I know you heard that Kakashi, come in so that we can discuss whatever it is that you wish to talk about." The Hokage took another long drag from his pipe. This would be a long night.

"Hokage-sama, it's Naruto. Besides the fact that he killed his first on this mission he also..." Kakashi paused here. "He also lost control. I don't know if the seal is weakening or what is happening, but he saw Shino on the ground and thought he was dead. I felt this evil chakra wash over the entire bridge that we were on. He completely obliterated Haku, his opponent at the time, he almost killed her sir."

"What?! Why wasn't this mentioned in the mission report, Kakashi I need to get in contact with Jiraiya, we may need him to come home and oversee the boys' training a lot sooner than we had anticipated." The Hokage was furious that he had only just been told about this, hours after the initial report. He should have been notified immediately!

"I apologize Hokage-sama, while my team knows of the Kyuubi I felt that it wasn't necessary to scare them, or Naruto like that. I doubt that he remembers what happened beyond the fact that he won the fight." The Hokage nodded knowing that Kakashi was right in thinking this. He was surprised that Naruto had let his team in on the secret of his tenant, but it was a good thing.

"I agree, however I need you to speak with the boy tomorrow, tell him exactly what happened. Tell him that he needs to make sure to keep better control over his emotions. I will get in contact with Jiraiya tonight. This can't wait. I will make sure that he comes back to the village immediately to make sure that the seal is alright." Kakashi nodded. "What do you think of Zabuza and Haku?" the Hokage asked changing the subject.

"Well I think that they will be invaluable as ninja of our village. Their skillsets are very vast; they will do fine here. Speaking of Zabuza, he is going to ask that you let him and a jounin partner go to Wave and train a batch of the next generation there as ninja. I ask that you allow this. I also ask that you don't give him a genin team just yet. I think he would be good for a certain team that will graduate soon, but he needs to prove himself loyal." Hiruzen nodded at his jounin's analysis of the two new additions to the village. He had an idea of which team Kakashi was talking about, but the silver haired jounin was right. The mist ninja would need to prove himself, especially if he would be the sensei to this particular team of academy students. well graduation was still a little under six months off, around the time of the next chunin exams. Zabuza had time.

About the training of the kids in wave however, "Kakashi, why do you want to train the kids in Wave?"

"I think they will be valuable allies, once trained. I'm sure that there are kids there that would be great ninja with the proper training, and they need to be able to defend themselves. Ultimately they need a jounin to be able to spend months at a time training them, until a more permanent option becomes available. We can send a different jounin each cycle, so that you aren't just giving away a perfectly good jounin. I've talked to Tazuna and he believes that he could pay for an S rank mission for up to two jounin every three months and still profit enough to help his village rebuild itself and thrive. They've even named him the leader of their small village, he is the one that hired us to save them, after all." Kakashi replied evenly. He knew that it was a gamble, but he hoped that the Hokage would see the opportunity here.

"Hmm very interesting Kakashi. I am inclined to agree with you. We will set up a meeting within the week for all of the jounin." The Hokage smiled at the thought of making a new ally in wave, not that they weren't already allies, but training their young generation would strengthen the friendship between them while also strengthening their allies themselves.

"If that's all you wanted to talk about Kakashi, I give you leave to go home. I have many things to think about. Along with getting in contact with Jiraiya. I'll see you tomorrow." Kakashi left the office and headed home.

"Hmmm this is a very interesting development with Naruto. I'm worried about him, but if he gains control over the Kyuubi he will be a very valuable asset to the military strength of the village. Plus, I won't have to worry about him as much. Jeesh the boy is going to be the death of me one day." Hiruzen laughed as he took a drag from his pipe and sat back in his chair.

-APL-

Naruto was lying in his bed. He was glad to finally be back home. The boy didn't regret what he had done to those thugs. He knew that it had to be done, but he was wracked with remorse. Naruto didn't like killing. He didn't want to kill. The thought of those thugs dying because of him... he didn't like it. He thought about it until he just couldn't anymore. Trying to calm down he soon relaxed his mind enough that he was almost asleep.

Unexpectedly, Naruto wasn't in his bed anymore. He looked around to find himself standing in just around half a foot of water. There were pipes all along the walls of the hallway that he was in. 'Where am I?' he wondered as he slowly started walking forward.

" **Hurry up, and come here boy. At the end of the hall is where I am. We need to have a discussion, you and I."** a deep booming voice rang out. Naruto had a very good idea of who was speaking. He even pretty much knew where he was. Contrary to what Kakashi believed, he did remember everything about the battle with Haku. He remembered looking at Shino thinking he was dead, and he also remembered losing control. He was like an onlooker in his own mind. The boy couldn't control his actions, only watch as he continued to beat Haku. He beat her completely. He had to admit that he enjoyed using the power of the Kyuubi, or at least the results that it gave. However, Naruto knew that he couldn't use it again. The blonde couldn't lose control like that ever again. 'I can't hurt my friends. I won't. So let's get this out of the way Kyuubi.' Naruto thought as he made his way down the sewer-like hallway.

The boy arrived in a humongous room. Water dripped from the ceiling. Naruto looked on to the huge cage at the edge of the room. There was no far wall, only the two barred doors of the cage that held his tenant, the giant fox spirit, Kyuubi. Naruto walked forward toward the cage until he was only a few feet from the doors.

"Alright Kyuubi, let's talk." Naruto said simply. The fox looked at the blonde boy in front of him.

" **Bwahahaha, so you know who I am. You're a very interesting boy, kit. I've been watching from inside you when possible. The way you've been brought up has made you stronger than all of those in your age group. At least you aren't some stupid weakling."** The Kyuubi complimented his tenant, which wasn't something that Naruto expected.

"Yeah, I'm stronger than my classmates, but I'm not strong enough. Haku had me beaten before our battle even started, and don't get me started on Kakashi and Zabuza. Those two are monsters. So Kyuubi, do you have a name? I'm pretty sure that you don't go by 'nine tailed fox'." Naruto had been thinking about it ever since he lost control on the bridge. The more he thought about it, Kyuubi couldn't be the foxes' name. If he was going to have to deal with him for the rest of his life, he might as well get to know him a bit. Naruto didn't want to hate the Kyuubi for what it had done to the village. From what he understood the fox was just a chakra monster. It was the embodiment of madness, so of course it would attack the first thing it saw. Although, the first thing the fox said to him made him start to think otherwise, if only slightly.

" **Hmm, you surprise me boy. To think that of the three hosts that I've had so far, you're the first to put together that I actually have a name. very well, I know that you aren't planning to just let me out. That would be completely idiotic of you, and I can tell by now that you aren't an idiot."** The gigantic fox looked at him. He had seen a lot from the boy's mind. Ever since Naruto had first learned to use chakra, the fox got glimpses of the outside world. He knew how intelligent the boy was, and talented as well.

" **My name is Kurama. I also have something else that I would like to you know. I didn't attack your village of my own volition. I actually have come to like the village Hidden in the Leaves. My last host and I didn't get along until close to the end of her life, but she and her husband treated me like I deserve to be treated, with respect. Not like my first host, who kept me chained to a damned ball in her mind."** Kurama let what he was saying to the boy sink in. He wanted Naruto to know that he had two hosts previous to him. the fox also wanted him to know that he hadn't attacked the boy's village because he wanted to. He had been forced.

"Alright so why did you attack the village Kurama?" Naruto asked, his opinion of the fox changing ever so slightly with each passing word between the two of them. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that an intelligent being such as Kurama wouldn't just lash out for no reason.

" **I was forced to, by a man in an orange mask. He never told me his name, although I don't guess he had to. He had complete control over me thanks to his Sharingan eye. The only thing I know about him is that he must be an Uchiha. My previous host was your mother, and she had just given birth to you. The seal was very weak thanks to that, and the man used this opportunity to break me free, and steal your older sister away. He almost killed her in the process. She and your father fought the man and I until he was able to seal me away again. They weren't able to retrieve your sister. I have no idea where she is now. I never wanted to be resealed, but I have learned from Kushina that it doesn't have to be a miserable existence."**

Naruto didn't know what to say. Kurama had known his parents. He had been on good terms with them! Maybe this was a chance to learn more about the two of them through the fox. He had a sister! This news shocked him to the core! "You knew my parents? I have a sister?!" he asked shakily. The information about the man in the mask was filed in his brain for later acknowledgement. He needed to find out about his family!

Kurama had other plans however. **"Yes kit, I knew them. I liked the two of them very much. Kushina gave me access to her senses most of the time, so I got to know them both very well. Minato was a genius in all senses of the word, but he never truly flaunted it. He was a very humble man, your father. Kushina, however was the opposite, short tempered and very impulsive. She was gifted as well, I see a lot of them both in you, kit. Your sister was a year and a half older than you, they named her Karin. We can talk about them more later though. I need you to tell your sensei Kakashi tomorrow about the man in the mask. If you agree to that I can get to the real reason, I brought you here."** The fox needed to know that the information he gave his jinchuriki wouldn't go to waste. He would explain to the boy how to allow him access to his sight and hearing so that he could talk to the jounin over Naruto more in depth about the man. He was sure that it wouldn't be the last time that they heard from him.

"Yeah ill make sure to tell him Kurama, the Hokage will want to know as well. Why are you being so nice to me? Don't you hate me for keeping you imprisoned?" Naruto asked. He wasn't sure that he could trust the fox just yet. He had valuable information, but only if Naruto could trust that he wasn't trying to trick him.

" **Kit, for almost the last century I've been imprisoned in someone. Be it my first host, who was a pain, or your mother, or you. I've grown accustomed to it. While eventually I'd like to be free, being in a jinchuuriki can be very interesting. Your mother went on many missions that I enjoyed watching, and some that I even got to participate in. we were partners, she respected me for what I am. I'm a mass of chakra that's been in existence since before the dawn of the shinobi age, while I don't know how to actually perform jutsu and the like, I'm a wealth of knowledge. She understood that, and I rewarded her for it."** Kurama explained to his host. He truly didn't care either way whether he was free, or imprisoned in Naruto. Being free would be nice, but he could live through the kit. The fox wanted to help him along the way, during his journey as a ninja. He told the boy that he didn't know jutsu, but that was a partial truth for when the time came.

"Okay Kurama, I think I understand where you're going with this. I can agree with you. I feel the same as my mom did. I've seen that you're extremely intelligent, and I believe that you could help me a lot. You could teach me things about the world that no one living today could. Plus, I'll let you use my senses if you explain to me how. I don't see a problem with that at all. Now, can you tell me why you actually brought me here in the first place?" Naruto was in truth, glad that the fox felt the way that he did. He could provide insight into many things in real time. The Kitsune would be a great asset in battle.

" **Alright kit, I brought you here to tell you that I will be helping you to control my power. Right now if you even bring it out you lose control, your mind is put on the back burner for my bloodlust and malice. This cannot happen, kit. You can't allow yourself to lose control like that again. You'll kill one of your friends, or worse. We will start this training tomorrow, once we finish our talk with Kakashi and the Hokage."** Kurama explained that they would be working together the whole way. The fox was actually excited to work with his host in this training. He felt that the boy would become his most powerful host yet, his last two hosts were unable to master his power. This boy, he could do it.

"So Kurama, are we partners?" Naruto asked.

" **Yes kit. We're partners."**

 **A/n- Hey all of you wonderful readers out there! I'm going to be updating this story at least twice within the next few days, because of something going on in my life. After the last update I won't update again for three months probably, but once I do start again you guys will get at least three more.**

 **Hope you enjoy! Read and review as always!**


	7. Zabuza and Haku's Test!

**A/N- Sorry for the delay guys. Been in basic training. Hope you enjoy! I will have another chapter in a couple weeks.**

Our resident blonde hero had fallen asleep shortly after talking to Kurama. The fox explained how to allow him access to his senses, and the boy had given him complete access. This made the fox happy. the last thirteen years had been hell, with only a glimpse of the outside world here and there.

The next morning came quickly for Naruto. Kurama had also told him that from now on he could visit the fox whenever he wanted, and also while he slept the boy would take lessons with the fox. He would be learning about the fox's past and about his parents.

" **Kit after your morning routine, go to the Hokage tower so that we can talk to old Hiruzen. He won't be surprised that we've come to our little agreement. Before you do anything though, get your ass in here and change my cage dammit! I'm tired of this sewer."** Kurama's voice boomed in the boy's head as he woke up. He could change his mind? How did that even work?

Naruto entered his mind and the fox explained that he could make his mind look like whatever he wanted. Naruto wondered aloud what the Kyuubi wanted his mind to be like. The huge Kitsune told the blonde to make it look like an endless forest, complete with forest animals that the fox could hunt. He wanted the center to be a large clearing, so that he and the boy could study and train together. Naruto did as his tenant asked and made his mind into a forest with a little help from the fox.

Finally, after what seemed like hours it was finally finished. The fox now had a collar with the kanji for seal on it instead of being in the gigantic cage.

After Kurama was happy with the finish product Naruto left his mind and began his morning routine. The fox had told him that it might be a good idea to add five pounds on his seal. Naruto did, and found that it wasn't a horrible change. It would still take a while to get used to. The boy finished his physical exercises around an hour after he had begun. Naruto had a hundred clones working on chakra control while he exercised so once he was done he dispelled them a few at a time.

He finished dispelling them and was about to head to the Hokage tower.

" **Kit send ten clones down to the library, tell them to pick a book and read it in its entirety. Each day you'll do this, but each day I want you to add five clones. I want you to do this until what happened to you in the Land of Wave happens. That'll be your limit for this little exercise of ours. By the way, there are tens of thousands of books down in that library. It'll probably take you your whole life to read them all, even with this boon of yours called clones."** Naruto grinned at the thought of his little trick. He did as Kurama told him and set off for the Hokage tower.

On his way to the tower he saw Ino coming out of her flower shop. "Hey Ino! How you been?" he greeted her smiling.

Ino was surprised to see her fellow blonde. 'his hair's grown longer, and he looks more mature. It's only been a few months! What happened to them on that last mission? Have to admit he looks good.' Her thoughts about Naruto surprised the girl. Why was she thinking about him looking good, and more mature?

"Hey Naruto! I've been good, we got to go on a C rank just like you guys. Ours was kind of boring though. We just escorted a guy back to his village and came home. How was your mission?" she asked as they walked.

"Well ours actually got upgraded to an A rank. We fought Zabuza and Haku of the mist. We brought them back with us though. They actually weren't fighting to kill, although it sure as hell seemed like it. It was tough! After that we fought a bunch of thugs, Kakashi, Zabuza and I." Naruto looked at Ino with a sadness in his eyes that she couldn't quite understand. "We killed them Ino. All of them, without mercy."

"Wow Naruto. I can't imagine what you must be going through. You're the first of our age group with a kill under his belt. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here you know." Ino couldn't believe it. That's what was different. He had killed someone.

Naruto stopped now. "Actually Ino… I could use someone to talk to. How about later on today after all of our team training. You could, umm… come over?" his cheeks were redder than they had ever been. Even around Hinata he had never been this embarrassed. Why was he being this way, he had never been embarrassed around Ino before.

Ino was floored! This was Naruto, the most confident guy in their class. The strongest of all of them, except maybe for Sasuke. She knew that Sasuke and Naruto were rivals that were neck and neck when it came to strength. He was pausing, and saying words like umm. What was up with that? Why in the world was his face red? Did he… did he like her?

"Sure Naruto, just come by the flower shop and get me. I'm your friend, of course I'll always be here for you if you need to talk." She said this as confidently as she could and in actuality she did wonderful! She was nervous as hell! What would she wear? Oh no… would he.. try to.. kiss her? Now her face was beat red.

"Thanks Ino! Anyways I have to go and see the Hokage. Later Ino!" Naruto ran off waving his goodbye to the girl. He had no idea why he was so nervous about this. She was just a friend. Right?

Ino was left with just as confusing thoughts. What was going with her? Why was she so nervous about hanging out with Naruto later that day? It didn't make sense.

-APL-

At the Hokage's office Zabuza was talking with Hiruzen about his plans as a ninja of the leaf.

"I want to be classified as an assassination specialist mostly. You know of my past with the Hidden Mist Village. I would also like you to send me to wave to teach a team of students. My thought is that we can have four jounin rotate between being here and there. They could have four teams of genin, each with a different leader. While a team's leader is there they would teach their team mostly, but would also teach all of the students. We would need four jounin that do not as of yet have teams. I am not willing to take a team just yet and I don't think you'll want me to. I'm sure that you want me to prove my worth as a ninja and gain your trust as this villages leader before you entrust a team to me. The only other thing I could think of would be that you find four jounin to move permanently to wave, and have each of your jounin with teams take their teams to wave for a month at a time. They would teach the students what it's like to be genin. I'm sure that you can find a solution, but I think that overlooking this opportunity would be a complete waste. That Inari boy, who is Tazuna's son was learning really well!" Zabuza's long winded speech was met with approval from the Hokage. They both felt the same about the situation.

"I've actually been thinking about a solution to the Wave situation and I believe that I have four jounin that would be perfect to send there permanently. They would have to accept of course, but I think they will. Also I believe that forming these teams and working out a system with Tazuna to let the teams start immediately doing D ranked missions from within the village will help them learn and grow faster than our academy students, who have the time to learn." The old man paused. Kakashi and Zabuza nodded in approval at this. They had no idea who the jounin would be, though, and were wondering.

"I feel as if we can accelerate the learning process over there so that they will be ready to become official genin of the leaf in one year. They will not need to learn the histories just yet; it can be an ongoing process. They will have all of the practical knowledge that they need in a year. Age requirements will have to be set, until such a time that an academy can be built. I feel that that is a way off however. I believe that Inari is eleven, correct?" Hiruzen had thought long and hard late into the night about this. He wanted the Wave ninja to be ready for missions as soon as possible and he believed that they could do it. Most of the academy was filled with theory and history. Cut all of that out and the old man knew that it would only take a year. They would only learn practical knowledge and chakra theory, for now.

"I can agree with this Hokage-sama. I think that your theory on this will work out perfectly. Inari was like a sponge when we were training with him, these new students will learn extremely quickly." Kakashi explained to the Hokage.

"Alright I believe that were in agreement about this?" Zabuza and Kakashi nodded. The Hokage summoned two ANBU. The Hokage gave them a scroll and told them to take it two wave as quickly as possible and bring back the reply. The scroll told of the deal that they had just talked about, and it also told Tazuna that Hiruzen would be backing them financially. they wouldn't be able to give him a lot, but it would be enough. The ANBU left the room and made their way to complete the mission.

"We should receive a reply within the week" the old man said, "Zabuza your test for jounin will be held later today. Be at training ground eleven at 4 o'clock. Make sure that Haku knows to be at the same training ground at 2."

"Yes Hokage-sama" the masked ex mist ninja replied. He was excited already at the prospect of becoming a leaf jounin. He knew that he had made the right choice bringing Haku here.

"It seems that Naruto is here, Zabuza you are dismissed." Zabuza left the office in a shun shin of the mist, which was swirling water. A knock sounded from outside the door.

"Enter Naruto." The Hokage told the boy.

Naruto walked into the office and looked at the two veterans in front of him. "hey old man, Kakashi sensei. I have some big news. I talked with Kurama- err the Kyuubi last night."

"I see, and what did Kurama have to say, my boy?" Kakashi was surprised at the nonchalant way that the Hokage was handling this news. He had always heard that the Kyuubi was malevolent and evil. If Naruto was talking to it, wasn't that a bad thing?

"Well he wanted me to tell you that he would oversee my training with his power. I've made the same deal with him that my mom did. He also wanted me to tell you that the attack on Konoha wasn't his choice. He was under the control of some masked Uchiha. He also told me about my sister." Naruto explained to them, he was sure that the Hokage would be surprised about the revelation that it wasn't the Kyuubi attacking on his own. He was also sure they would both be surprised about his sister.

"Hmmm, so he took little Karin that night? I've been wondering what happened to her ever since the Kyuubi attacked, we searched everywhere, but we never found her body. I never told you about her because I thought she had died. I'm sorry I never told you Naruto-kun. This man though, did Kurama tell you anything else about him?"

" **Kit tell him that I don't know anything about the man, other than the fact that he's an Uchiha. He wears a black cloak with red clouds, and an orange mask with only one eye hole."** Kurama explained.

Naruto explained what the Kyuubi had told him. "I want to search for my sister. Now that I know she's out there, I have to find her. To tell her that she has a brother!" Naruto exclaimed, but the Hokage quickly put that thinking down.

"Naruto-kun you aren't ready for something like that. You are a new genin, I can't let you go out on a mission that could be double S rank for all we know. What if she's joined the man's organization and wants to kill you? Do you really think you could kill your only sister?" Kakashi was completely surprised by all of this. He knew as well that Naruto had a sister, but had no idea that she'd been taken all those years ago.

The man had no idea that the Kyuubi was good. Minato sensei had never told him about Kushina-chan's bijuu. They never really talked about it much. Kakashi hadn't thought about it.

"Naruto I've called Jiraiya back to the village to help you with training to use Kurama's chakra. He needs to know that this is non-negotiable. Jiraiya was your father's teacher, he will become your teacher when he gets here in a week." Hiruzen told the blonde.

" **I understand kit; I wouldn't have it any other way. Jiraiya and I are actually good friends. He's going to teach you a jutsu that's going to help us with training, it's called the blood clone."** Kurama was excited to see the old pervert again, it had been a long time since they had conversed. He knew that the blood clone would be one of the first things that his host would need to learn. He had taught it to Kushina so that the fox could be corporeal and physically teach her.

"Kurama is actually happy that Jiraiya-sama is going to be teaching me." Naruto said.

"Good! Well if that's all then I suggest that you go and enjoy this time that you have off. Spend it with your friends Naruto." Kakashi and Hiruzen smiled at the boy, he seemed much better than he had the day before. The old man told him when Zabuza and Haku's tests would be and the blonde left. He headed back home.

-APL-

Hinata had been talking with her father most of the morning. He wished to know how her mission went. It pleased him that she had completed it successfully even though it had been harder than originally thought. He told her that she would need to keep up to good work if she was to impress the elders.

Since Naruto had cast off his mask of ignorance and started helping his classmate Hinata had been getting better and better. Every day she had grown more confident. The day before the final exam at the academy she had finally been able to show her father. She completely destroyed her younger sister Hinabi in a jyuken bout. Her father had been very impressed with how much she had improved because of her blonde classmates help. At first he hadn't wanted to let her associate with the boy.

He knew what he contained and it worried the main branch head that the two of them were becoming so close. He didn't want her to become corrupted by the boy. He was under the impression that the fox was just as evil as the stories suggested. When Hinata had beaten her sister, his view on the boy did a flip, a 180 turn if you will.

He had started to encourage his eldest daughter to learn more from the Kyuubi boy. He felt that the blonde could help her grow into a strong kunoichi.

You can imagine the look of shock on his face when the boy showed up at the door of his office right after Hiashi had sent Hinata to her room after talking to her about her first c ranked mission.

Hiashi heard a knock at the door of his office, "who is it? What business do you have here?" he asked the visitor.

"Hiashi-sama, its Naruto Uzumaki, may I come in?" Naruto replied curtly.

What was he doing here? The clan head wondered as he told the boy to enter his office. It was very odd, he hadn't met the boy yet and he had chosen today of all days to pay him a visit.

"Good morning Hiashi-sama." Naruto greeted.

"Good morning Uzumaki-san. May I ask why you are here today?" Hinata father replied. He wanted to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.

"W-well… I've been wondering the best way to do this..." he paused wondering what to say.

"Out with it boy. Whatever it is just say it!" Hiashi said, just a little impatiently.

"Umm… can I take Hinata-chan on a date Hiashi-sama? I've never asked a girl to go on a date before. I didn't know the best way to go about it so I decided to make sure that it was alright with you first. You are her father after all." Naruto had basically said all of this in a matter of a few seconds.

The Hyuuga clan head looked at him for a moment. Then he burst out laughing! "Hehe, whew you are something else boy. Why didn't you just ask my daughter herself? Why come to me. If I had disapproved of the two of you becoming closer, I would have stopped it long ago."

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay with it, Hiashi-sama. If Hinata-chan and I are going to start umm… dating, I didn't want anything to stand in the way of that. Least of all her own family." Naruto was sweating bullets in embarrassment by now. He had thought that this was the right way to do this, but apparently it would have been better to just skip all of this and just ask her! Damn, why did he have to be so dense when it came to girls.

"Naruto-san, I approve of the two of you. Go and ask her. I must say this as her father though. If you hurt my little girl, you had better pray to Kami that I don't find you. When I do words don't even express the pain that you will feel. Do you understand?" Hiashi let loose enough of his killing intent to scare the living crap out of the boy in front of him. The clan head smiled sweetly.

"Yes sir, I understand. I'll just…" he gulped, swallowing nervously. "I'll just go and ask her myself." The boy finished. The man in front of him chuckled as the blonde got up to leave.

"Oh Naruto-san. Hinata's room is down the hall on the right." Hiashi said as the boy nodded and left to go ask Hinata. 'Hmmm he is a very interesting boy. I would have never expected him to do that.' Hiashi thought as he pondered the relationship between the two of them.

Naruto walked down the hallway. He was nervous as hell! What would he even say to the girl that he had been crushing on for months. During the two weeks that they had been guarding Tazuna after the battle on the bridge he had come to the realization that he liked Hinata as more than a friend. He was confused by it at first, because he'd never had these feelings before. But now, he was just nervous. He had no idea how to ask her, not to even mention the fact that now he was confused by the earlier interaction with his previous classmate Ino. What was he going to do later when she came to his house… he had sure gotten himself into a pickle when it came to girls.

The boy arrived at the door that belonged to Hinata. Oh no, what in the world could he even say to her? 'I need to grow some balls and knock on the damned door at least.' Naruto thought as he brought his knuckle up to the door. He knocked twice.

"Who is it?" Hinata called from the other side.

"It's Naruto, Hinata-chan, can I come in?" Naruto asked.

Hinata was surprised, she hadn't expected Naruto to be there. How in the world had he gotten in to the compound? She had no idea why he was there, and she started to get nervous almost instantly. "Yes Naruto-kun, you can come in."

Naruto opened the door slowly not sure as to what he was going to say to his crush just yet. He had been thinking about it since the wave mission, but still couldn't come up with anything. Well, might as well just come out and ask her, right? He walked into her room and noticed that she was blushing. Her cheeks were a faint shade of pink. Was she just as nervous as he was? That made things a little easier.

"Hinata-chan, I was wondering if you… umm would you?" Naruto paused still nervous as hell.

"Yes Naruto-kun? What is it?" she asked hesitantly.

"Well, would you like to go to dinner with me? I was thinking we could go on a date together, this Saturday." Naruto just came out and said it. He wasn't going to get anywhere by pussyfooting around.

Hinata on her part didn't expect this in the slightest. Saturday wasn't for another three days, since it was Thursday. She wanted to say yes. She had been hoping for this since they started on their team together. She wanted him to notice her and apparently he had. "s-sure, Naruto-kun. I'd like that." She replied with a slight stutter.

Naruto was elated! She said yes! He was inwardly freaking out, but outwardly he just said, "Alright Hinata-chan, see you Saturday at seven!" he had said it enthusiastically and then just ran out of the compound.

Hinata had no clue what to think. Her crush had just asked her on their first date! Oh no, what was she going to wear?!

-APL-

Naruto practically hopped and skipped through the village in happiness. He was doing on a date!

It was around 1:30 in the afternoon, and Naruto didn't want to miss Haku and Zabuza's tests so he made his way to training ground eleven.

" **Kit, what are you going to do about the blonde vixen later on this evening? You do realize that she wants to be your mate, right?"** Kurama interrupted his thoughts as he arrived at the training ground.

'No she doesn't! what are you even talking about Kurama, and why in the world would you say it like that?' Naruto responded in his mind red faced at the thought of "mating". He was only a thirteen-year-old boy after all.

" **I'll let you see for yourself, but mark my words boy. You need to figure something out. You can't be going behind your mates back with this blonde. While it's not uncommon to have multiple mates, they need to know about each other or its going to blow up in your face, in the worst way possible."** Kurama was inwardly laughing his ass off at what his container had gotten himself into. He knew how the boy felt about Hinata, but he also knew that the blonde vixen, Ino, was it? She had shown all the signs of a woman that wanted to mate with the boy. The red cheeks, the scent of her, and the nervousness were all clear signs to the fox that his container was in a situation that could possibly turn out very badly.

'Alright Kurama, I'll see what happens tonight when she comes over. I don't think you're right about this but if you are ill figure something out. I really like Hinata-chan, I don't want to hurt her.' Naruto didn't think that the fox could have been right in a million years, but on the off chance that he was. 'Will you help me with this? About what to do I mean, if you are right?' Naruto asked the fox.

" **I shall think about it kit; I may just let you suffer their wrath. I haven't quite decided yet!"** Naruto didn't like the way that sounded at all!

'Damned fox.' He thought back. It was almost time for Haku's test so he told Kurama that he would talk to him a little bit about it later. The fox chuckled, knowing that he would be guaranteed entertainment with this.

Pretty soon he heard people walking into the vicinity. It was Zabuza and Haku, so Naruto decided to greet them.

"Hey guys, how are you liking the village?" he asked as they walked up to him.

"I oughta thank you kid. You didn't have to offer this to us. We both feel like this could be a new beginning for us." Zabuza thanked him, which was slightly out of character, but Naruto understood. The leave village was their new home, and they were just realizing what that meant to them.

"No problem, I would do it again in a heartbeat." Naruto explained. They sat with him talking and waiting for the Hokage to arrive with their opponents.

Around fifteen minutes later a group of jounin and chunin showed up with the Hokage leading them. Asuma Sarutobi, the Hokage's son greeted the three ninja waiting.

"Hello Zabuza-san, Haku-san, I am Asuma Sarutobi, the Hokage's son. I'll be Zabuza's opponent today." He looked over to Naruto. "Naruto, how have you been? It's been a while since our teams have been on a mission together."

"We just got back from our first C rank. It was awesome!" Naruto laughed.

"Heh, so you'll be the one I fight? Where is Haku's opponent?" Zabuza asked cheekily. He figured that this guy would be easy to take down. It'd be over in a few minutes.

"My name is Iwashi Tatami, I'm a Chunin. I'll be your opponent Haku-san." A man that looked to be around 17 years old, walked up to them. He wore the standard chunin flak jacket, blue ninja pants, and had short spiky brown hair. He had a short, but noticeable dark goatee. His eyes were a cerulean blue, with a little green in them. Other than that he was average in almost every way.

Haku nodded, and stood up. The Hokage smiled at her eagerness, as did everyone else.

"Looks like she's ready to go. This should be good." One Anko Mitarashi was saying. Anko had light brown, pupil-less eyes. Her hair was a violet color and was styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She wore a fitted mesh body suit that stretched from her neck down to her thighs. Over this she wore a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark orange mini-skirt, a dark blue belt, and pale grey shin guards. In addition to the typical forehead protector, she also wore a small pendant that looked like a snake fang and a wrist watch.

Anko grinned maniacally as the Hokage walked up to Haku and Iwashi. The other jounin and chunin watching were as excited as ever. They hadn't seen anything like this in ages. The village had been pretty boring recently.

Kakashi laughed "I'll put five hundred ryo on Haku beating the boy in less than three minutes. Any takers?"

Chouza, and Inoichi, the clan heads of the Akimichi and Yamanaka clan stepped up to Kakashi. "Is she that good? I'll take that bet." Chouza grinned handing the money to Inoichi. Kakashi did the same, and then a few other jounin stepped up.

In the end Shikaku, the head of the Nara clan, Anko, and Asuma put money on her winning early. Six other jounin and chunin including Gai, who was the leader of team ten, and Chouza had put money for her to either lose, or last more than three minutes.

Kakashi chuckled to himself at the outcome. He and the other four would be just a little richer after this. 'Iwashi has no chance.'

"Alright you two, these are the rules. No killing, but anything else is allowed. If I deem it necessary, I will stop the match." The Hokage stated to the two ninja that were about to fight.

Now normally Haku would have taken the time to gauge her opponent. She would have started off slow and shown her skills a bit, but she had heard the betting taking place with the jounin off to the side. 'Better make this quick' she thought grinning evilly across the field.

"You two ready?" the old man asked and at the nod he received he jumped back and told them to begin.

Iwashi began the match by throwing four kunai at Haku, which she dodged easily. She sped through a few hand signs. "Ice Style: Crystallized Ice Dome!" she muttered and put hand hands onto the ground.

In seconds Iwashi was completely encased in a dome of ice. Haku quickly began her next jutsu. "Demonic Ice Mirrors!" she yelled and the dome split into sixteen sheets of ice that surrounded the leaf chunin. She leapt into one of them.

The chunin Iwashi had no idea what to do. He tried a fire style jutsu, which was completely ineffective.

"It's over Hokage-sama, I will finish him with this move!" Haku explained. The onlookers were surprised by her ruthlessness on the battlefield. None of them wanted to be Iwashi right now. She was in complete control. she started in on the immense number of hand signs she would need for the jutsu.

"Ice Style: Demonic Murder." Haku said confidently and stood on top of the top most sheet of ice. The sheets below slowly transformed into thousands of senbon. Iwashi was scared for his life. He was going to die here today. He just knew it. He screamed out in pain as the jutsu completed and he was impaled all over his body. He fell to the ground looking like a pincushion.

"Winner of the match, Haku Momochi. Congratulations you are now a chunin of Konoha." He looked at her, glad that he wasn't on the receiving end of the jutsu. She wasn't even breathing heavily. "is he going to be alright?"

"I didn't hit any of his vital spots Hokage-sama. In around two weeks he will be well enough to go back to missions." This floored everyone there. She had been so ruthless in her attacking and yet she hadn't hit any of his vital spots? She had just done what was necessary to take the boy down in the least amount of time possible. The wasn't chunin skill, it was jounin.

"Gai take him to the hospital. Haku-chan, you have perfect control over your ice. If what you say is true and you didn't hit even one of that boy's vital spots, that isn't the work of a chunin. I want a full medical report. If that report comes back supporting your claim, I will promote you to tokubetsu jounin in six months. I need to know that you can lead as well as fight, but your skills are more than enough for the rank." The Hokage praised her making her blush slightly. Zabuza walked up to her and gave her a quick hug.

"I knew you could do it Haku." He told her making her blush even brighter. Naruto on the other hand was sweating bullets.

" **Kit, you had better be glad you lost control, or you'd be dead. The girl is scary!"** Kurama laughed as the boy paled.

'Shut up Kurama, I could have taken her!' Naruto retorted to the fox even though he knew he couldn't have. The fox only laughed that much harder.

The gamblers amongst the crowd groaned as the losers paid the winners. "Anyone want to bet on Zabuza's match?" Kakashi grinned evilly. They all shook their heads as he laughed.

"Alright Asuma-san, guess it's our turn. What's say we make this interesting. If I win, you have to come with me to Wave when the time comes." Zabuza looked at the man, who nodded. The terms weren't all that serious, and Asuma hadn't been to Wave yet, surprisingly.

Yugao Uzuki, Naruto's kenjutsu teacher, who was watching, looked at Zabuza's sword with interest. 'That's Kubikirihocho! So he was one of the seven ninja swordsman of the mist? Hmm, he's kind of handsome, but with a rugged aspect to him. I like it.' She blushed at her thoughts. She would have to talk to Zabuza-san about his sword.

"Alright you two, same rules as before. Are you ready?" Hiruzen asked the two of them. They nodded and walked to opposite sides of the field.

"Begin!" the Hokage gave them the signal to start and Zabuza launched into his first attack. He swung the large cleaver-like sword downward onto Asuma, who blocked with two trench knives that glowed with a green hue.

'Wind chakra huh? This will be interesting.' Zabuza thought as he made a one handed seal for the water clone jutsu. Two clones split from his body and swiped at either side of Asuma. The Hokage's son jumped back and created a shadow clone. He started forming hand signs. The clone threw two kunai at each water clone. The clones both blocked, but they both still dispelled.

"Quite the range on your wind chakra Asuma-san, that was at least two feet. I'm impressed." Zabuza complimented the man who had just finished his jutsu.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" he sent the blast of wind as Zabuza, who blocked with the flat of his blade. He skidded back a few feet, and started his own jutsu.

"Water Style: Water Bullet!" he held the last sign as he sent seven water bullets at Asuma. He quickly started in on another jutsu. Asuma dodged and blocked the small compressed balls of water. He formed hand signs quickly as he did.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"

"Wind Style: Blade of Wind!"

The huge dragon of water went after Asuma as he unleashed his blade of wind cutting the dragon in half down the middle.

"Alright I think it's time to end this Asuma. Let's see how you deal with this! Water style: Hidden Mist jutsu!" Zabuza exclaimed, and soon the entire battlefield was enshrouded in a thick white mist.

"Eight points." The voice came from behind.

"Larynx, spine, lungs." This voice came from the left.

"Jugular, subclavian artery." This one from the right.

"Kidneys, and heart. Which shall I puncture Asuma?" this voice however came from the front.

In a matter of seconds Asuma was surrounded. Zabuza came from behind first. Asuma had no idea. Soon the man was trapped.

"Water Prison Jutsu. Hokage-sama this match is over." The mist cleared revealing Asuma trapped in a ball of water. Kakashi winced as he remembered the last time he had seen this jutsu.

"You've proven your point Zabuza. You can let him go." Zabuza released the jutsu, glad that he had won. The man knew that he had to end it quickly. They were both running out of chakra from all of the extensive jutsu. The only way that he could do it without killing him was to trap the wind user.

"Good one Zabuza-san, that was an interesting way to end it." Asuma shook Zabuza's hand being the good sport. In truth, he could have continued. However, he knew that they had proved Zabuza's skill enough that he would be given the rank that he deserved.

"Zabuza Momochi. You are hereby awarded the rank of jounin. You will now be able to accept any rank of mission. Given time, you will also receive a team of genin to train as your own. Do you accept this rank?" Hiruzen asked the man.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. I accept the rank and responsibilities I have been given as a jounin of Konoha." Zabuza replied.

The Hokage smiled. He told them that the testing was finished. It was time to get back to their daily activities. The jounin that were there made their way back to their homes, and the Hokage walked back to his office with Zabuza and Haku following him.

"Haku, you will be taking the rookie genin teams on several C ranked missions in the next six months. You will also be required to go on at least three A ranked missions with your fellow chunin, and a jounin as leader. If you can prove yourself, I see no problems with giving you tokubetsu jounin. Is this acceptable?" Hiruzen and the two newest ninja of the leaf had come to his office.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. I wasn't expecting to be given such a high rank." Haku replied. She was ready to accept any challenge that was given to her.

"Zabuza, Monday morning I will have a meeting with all of the jounin. We will discuss the issue with the young people in Wave Country, and their training. I believe that I have four jounin that will be able to join you and Asuma, when you go." The Hokage told him. Zabuza nodded, knowing that it would take some time to achieve these goals.

-APL-

Naruto walked down the road, he was on a mission to find Ino's flower shop. He had no idea where it was, the only ones that went with her there while they were in the academy were the girls like Sakura and Hinata. He walked by the weapons shop known as Higarashi's, where he had gotten his teams weights. He paused, before continuing on. He would have to check something later.

He rounded a corner, he wasn't sure why, but the walk through the village was more peaceful than normal. Finally, he saw it. It was a little shop on the corner of two small streets. Yamanaka's flowers, it was called. He walked up to the door, all of a sudden he was nervous as hell. He didn't have any idea what he would say to the girl.

He was still haunted by his first kill. That hadn't changed in the slightest. The problem was that he had been thinking about the possibility of Ino liking him all day long. What if she did? What was he going to do if both Hinata and Ino liked him? he didn't know how he felt about either of them for real. He thought that Ino was cute, but he knew Hinata better. They had been friends for a long time after all.

'Ohh, I'll just have to see how things go before I decide anything.' He thought to himself as he opened the door. The fur ball in his mind chuckled at his predicament. Why didn't the boy see that if he played his cards right he wouldn't have to choose.

"Yamanaka flower's! welcome how may I h-help y-you?" Ino realized who was at the door and stuttered the last two words out of surprise and nervousness. You see, she had been thinking all day as well.

"Hey Ino!" Naruto smiled at the girl. "I was wondering if you still wanted to come over and talk."

That smile. His smile made her heart flutter in her chest. "S-sure Naruto. Let me just tell my dad that I'm going out." She went into the back room, not coming out for a little while. When she did finally emerge she was dressed differently. She wore a light purple tank top, with a black pair of form fitting shorts that cut off right above the knee. Maybe she was getting comfortable, for their talk. Naruto didn't know. All he could do was stare at the girl. The simplest things made all the difference, Ino wasn't showing nearly as much skin now, but Naruto thought she looked cuter than ever.

She took his hand and led him out onto the street. "Lead the way blondie!" she said seemingly gaining all of her confidence back.

Naruto laughed "Hey, you're blonde too you know!" he said and they took off toward his house.

-APL-

The house was just as Ino remembered it. Naruto had already put away all of his parent's memorabilia, not ready for the aftermath of anyone knowing who they were. They walked inside and Naruto put a kettle of tea on the stove.

Ino sat on the couch wondering what to say. The sun was starting to set outside, as it was around 6:30. Naruto sat beside her and as they waited for the tea to boil, he decided to start talking.

"So do you like being a genin so far Ino-chan?" Naruto asked. Ino was stunned for a second. He had called her chan! Her cheeks burned a bright red as she replied.

"Well, I really like it. I've been training a lot with my team and were all getting stronger. Going out of the village was a lot of fun, I've never been more than a mile out before so it was all new to me. I can't wait to be able to explore even more of the world out there. I've always dreamed of traveling you know." She told him, as he watched her talking. He noticed that at the end she started getting really passionate.

"Tell me, Ino-chan. What is your dream?" he asked.

"I want to travel around the world and learn how to grow all kinds of flowers and plants that have uses in the ninja field. I want to learn to grow medicinal plants as well as poisonous ones. I want to bring them home and help my dad's shop prosper, and then I want to take it over as my own. Making it well known that plants and flowers can be used in all aspects of the world. That they don't just look pretty." She had a fiery passion in her eyes when she spoke of taking over her father's shop and revolutionizing the use of plants in many different ways.

This surprised Naruto he had no idea that she wanted to do something like that. It made him happy that she had a dream just like he did. She was very driven. "So Naruto, what was it like? I know it's gotta hurt to think about, but I need to know… what was it like to kill someone..." She shuddered at the thought of it. She knew she needed to know. It was an important part of their careers.

"Uhh, honestly Ino, it was just… we were fighting Zabuza and Haku on the bridge and then they joined us. They were our allies. Then Gato and his thugs showed up. Kakashi and Zabuza were going to take them all on, but I wanted to help. I had to get myself involved. So we split them up, we each killed a third of them. There were 30 of them. Ten people Ino. Each one was as easy to take down as the last had been, I buried my kunai into each of their hearts. I watched as the life left their eyes. I see them. When I go to sleep I see them in my dreams, looking at me lifeless. Asking me why." Naruto looked away from Ino with tears streaming down his cheeks.

Ino silently turned his face towards hers and brought her to him. She hugged him tightly like she never wanted to let him go. She was crying now too. She saw how much of an impact this had on him. she wondered if it would be this hard for her. She didn't want to think about it anymore as she just sat there holding the blonde boy, who if she was quite honest with herself, she had feelings for since the academy. They were superficial then, and she didn't know the depth of them now, but they were there.

"It's going to be ok Naruto-kun, I promise. I'll help you get through this. No matter what." She said softly into his ear as she ran her fingers through his hair. He calmed down over a few minutes. She continued to hold him, she didn't know what else she could do for the boy. She hoped that she was comforting him.

"Thank you Ino-chan, it means a lot to me that you want to help me through this." Naruto said into her ear, mostly because he couldn't really move. Ino shivered at the sensation. Her cheeks warmed, and turned a bright red.

"N-Naruto, can I ask you something?" the platinum blonde gently broke the hug and looked into her fellow blonde's eyes with a rosy blush warming her face.

"Sure Ino, what is it?" Naruto asked. He was really glad that he had brought her here, already the weight on his mind felt lighter. He knew that he would at least sleep a little better tonight.

She looked at him for a moment as if contemplating whether or not she should ask. 'aww fuck it, I'll just do this. Asking him outright is just too embarrassing.' She thought before slowly moving in and giving him a soft kiss on his lips. It took him a moment before he realized just what was happening. Gingerly, he returned her kiss, wrapping his arms back around her.

The tea kettle started to let out an extreme hissing noise, breaking them from their sweet embrace. "Aww dammit, I was enjoying that!" Ino groaned as she watched Naruto get up and make them both tea.

He laughed at her antics, but inwardly he was wondering just why his heart seemed like it was going to explode out of chest. It was beating so fast and hard, and why was he so hot all of a sudden? What was he going to do? When she had kissed him, it was like his whole body lit up in a white hot fire. He shook the thoughts from his mind for the moment. 'I'm just going to enjoy this. I'll think about it later.'

He brought the tea to her and they drank a little silently. Both were freaking out about what had just happened.

Ino for one, was completely awestruck. The girl didn't know what to think. It was only one short kiss, and yet she felt like her whole life was going to change. Sparks lit up her entire body as soon as their lips had touched. When he had started to kiss her back, she had fought the urge to moan into his kiss. She hadn't thought that would have been a good idea, considering what they had just talked about.

Naruto looked over to Ino, wondering what he could say. Her face was a bright pink, and he knew that she was embarrassed. "Ino-chan, that was…" he paused before looking right into her eyes.

"Amazing" she finished for him.


End file.
